CRITICAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS 

ESSAYS 


COLLECTED  AND  REPUBLISHED 


BY 

THOMAS  CAKLYLE 


7 HE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX.—IAYLORS  HISTORIC 
SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  LITERATURE 


CHICAGO,  NEW  YORK,  AND  SAN  FRANCISCO: 

BELFORD,  CLARKE  &  CO., 
Publishers. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX, 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/criticalmiscella00carl_2 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


I. 

Theodore  Beza,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1580,  pub- 
lished at  Geneva  a  well-printed,  clearly  expressed,  and  on  the 
whole  considerate  and  honest  little  Volume,  in  the  Latin 
tongue,  purporting  to  be  e  Icones,  that  is  to  say,  true  Por- 
' traits,  of  men  illustrious  in  the  Ref ormation  of  Religion  and 
'  Restoration  of  Learning  1  Volume  of  perhaps  250  pages, 
but  in  fact  not  numerically  paged  at  all,  which  is  sometimes 
described  as  4to,  but  is  in  reality  8vo  rather,  though  expanded 
by  the  ample  margin  into  something  of  a  square  form.  It  is 
dedicated  to  King  James  VI.  of  Scotland  ;  then  a  small  rather 
watery  boy  hardly  yet  fourteen,  but  the  chief  Protestant  king 
then  extant ;  the  first  Icon  of  all  being  that  of  James  himself. 
The  Dedication  has  nothing  the  least  of  fulsome  or  eyen 
panegyrical ;  and  is  in  fact  not  so  much  a  Dedication  as  a 
longish  preface,  explanatory  of  Beza's  impulse  towards  pub- 
lishing such  a  book,  namely,  the  delight  he  himself  has  in 
contemplating  the  face  of  any  heroic  friend  of  Letters  and  of 
true  Religion  ;  and  defending  himself  withal,  to  us  superflu- 
ously enough,  against  any  imputation  of  idolatry  or  image- 
worship,  which  scrupulous  critics  might  cast  upon  him,  since 

1  Icones,  id  est  Verm  Imagines?  Virorum  doctrind  maul  et  pietate  illus- 
trium,  quorum  prwcipue  ministerio  partim  bonarum  Liter  arum  stadia 
sunt  restituta,  partim  vera  Religio  in  mriis  Orbis  Christians  regionibus, 
nostra  patrumque  memorid  fuit  instaurata :  additis  eorundem  vitce  & 
operce  descriptionibus,  quibus  adiectce  sunt  nonmdlm  picturce  quas  Emble- 
mata  meant.  Theodoro  Beza  Auctore.—Qenem.  Apud  Joannem  Lao* 
nium.  M.D.LXXX. 


C5 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


surely  painting  and  engraving  are  permissible  to  mankind  ; 
and  that,  for  the  rest,  these  Icons  are  by  no  means  to  be  in- 
troduced into  God's  House,  but  kept  as  private  furniture  in 
your  own.  The  only  praise  he  bestows  on  James  is  the  indis- 
putable one  that  he  is  head  of  a  most  Protestant  nation  ;  that 
he  is  known  to  have  fine  and  most  promising  faculties  ;  which 
may  God  bring  to  perfection,  to  the  benefit  of  his  own  and 
many  nations,  of  which  there  is  the  better  hope,  as  he  is  in 
the  meanwhile  under  the  tuition  of  two  superlative  men,  Dom- 
inus  Georgius  Buchananus,  the  facile  princeps  in  various  liter- 
ary respects,  and  Dominus  Petrus  Junius  (or  Jonck,  as  it  is 
elsewhere  called,  meaning  '  Young '),  also  a  man  of  distin- 
guished merits. 

The  Royal  Icon,  which  stands  on  the  outside,  and  precedes 
the  Dedication,  is  naturally  the  first  of  all :  fit  ornament  to 
the  vestibule  of  the  w7hole  work — a  half-ridiculous  half-pa- 
thetic protecting  genius,  of  whom  an  exact  figure  is  given  on 
page  7. 

Some  Fourscore  other  personages  follow  ;  of  personages 
fourscore,  but  of  Icons  only  Thirty-eight ;  Beza,  who  clearly 
bad  a  proper  wish  to  secure  true  portraits,  not  having  at  his 
command  any  further  supply  ;  so  that  in  forty-three  cases 
there  is  a  mere  frame  of  a  wood-cut  with  nothing  but  the 
name  of  the  individual  wTho  should  have  filled  it  given. 

A  certain  French  translator  of  the  Book,  who  made  his  ap- 
pearance next  year,  Simon  Goulart,  a  French  friend,  fellow- 
preacher,  and  distinguished  co-presbyter  of  Beza,  of  whom 
there  will  be  much  farther  mention  soon,  seems  to  have  been 
better  supplied  than  Beza  with  engravings.  He  has  added 
from  his  own  resources  Eleven  new  Icons  ;  many  of  them  bet- 
ter than  the  average  of  Beza,  and  of  special  importance  some 
of  them  :  for  example  that  of  Wickliffe,  the  deep-lying  tap- 
root of  the  whole  tree  ;  to  want  whose  Portrait-  and  have 
nothing  but  a  name  to  offer  was  surely  a  want  indeed.  Gou- 
lart's  Wickliffe  gratifies  one  not  a  little  ;  and  to  the  open- 
minded  reader  who  has  any  turn  for  physiognomic  inquiries 
is  very  interesting  ;  a  most  substantial  and  effective  looking 
man ;  easily  conceivable  as  Wickliffe,  though,  as  in  my  own 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


7 


case,  one  never  saw  a  portrait  of  him  before  ;  a  solid,  broad- 
browed,  massive-headed  man  ;  strong  nose,  slightly  aquiline, 
beard  of  practical  length  and  opulent  growth  ;  evidently  a 
thoughtful,  cheerful,  faithful,  and  resolute  man  ;  to  whom  in- 
deed a  very  great  work  was  appointed  in  this  world  ;  that  of 


inaugurating  the  new  Beformation  and  new  epoch  in  Europe, 
with  results  that  have  been  immense,  not  yet  completed  but 
expanding  in  our  own  day  with  an  astonishing,  almost  alarm- 
ing swiftness  of  development.  This  is  among  the  shortest  of 
all  the  Icon  articles  or  written  commentaries  in  Beza's  Work. 
We  translate  it  entire,  as  a  specimen  of  Beza's  well-meant, 


s 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHX  KZOX. 


but  too  often  vague,  and  mostly  inane  performance  in  these 
enterprises  ;  which  to  the  most  zealous  reader  of  his  own  time 
could  leave  so  little  of  distinct  information,  and  to  most 
readers  of  out'  own  none  at  all ;  the  result  little  more  than  in- 
terjectional,  a  pious  emotion  towards  Heaven  and  the  individ- 
ual mentioned  ;  result  very  vague  indeed. 

Wickliffe. — 'Let  this,  England,  be  thy  greatest  honour  for- 
1  ever  that  thou  didst  produce  John  Wickliffe  (albeit  thou  hast 
'  since  somewhat  stained  that  honour)  ;  the  first  after  so  many 
'  years  that  dared  to  declare  war  against  the  Roman  Harlot, 
'who  audaciously  mocked  the  Kings  of  Europe,  intoxicated 
1  with  her  strong  drink.  This  effort  was  so  successful  that 
'  ever  since  that  Wicked  One  has  been  mortally  wounded  by 
'  the  blow  which  Wickliffe  by  the  sword  of  the  Word  of  God 
'  dealt  to  her.  And  although  for  a  time  the  wound  appeared 
'  to  be  closed,  since  then  it  has  always  burst  open  again  ;  and 
'finally,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  remains  incurable.  Nothing 
'  was  wanting  to  thee,  excellent  champion,  except  the  martyr  s 
'  crown  ;  which,  not  being  able  to  obtain  in  thy  life,  thou 
'  didst  receive  forty  years  after  thy  death,  when  thy  bones 
1  were  burnt  to  powder  by  Antichrist ;  who  by  that  single  act 
6  of  wickedness  has  forever  branded  himself  with  the  stamp  of 
'  cruelty,  and  has  acquired  for  thee  a  glory  so  much  the  more 
1  splendid. 

'  John  Wickliffe  flourished  in  the  year  1372.  He  died,  after 
c  diverse  combats,  in  the  year  1387.  His  bones  were  burnt  at 
'  Oxford  in  the  year  1410. 5 

No,  not  at  Oxford,  but  at  Lutterworth,  in  Leicestershire,  as 
old  Fuller  memorably  tells  us  :  £  Such  the  spleen  of  the  Coun- 
£  cil  of  Constance/  says  he,  £  they  not  only  cursed  his  memory, 
£  as  dying  an  obstinate  heretic,  but  ordered  that  his  bones 
'(with  this  charitable  caution,  "ii  it,"  the  body,  "may  be  dis- 
'  cerned  from  the  bodies  of  other  faithful  people  ")  be  taken 
'  out  of  the  ground  and  thrown  far  from  any  Christian  burial. 
'In  obedience  hereunto,  Richard  Fleming,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
'  Diocesan  of  Lutterworth,  sent  his  officers  (vultures  with  a 
'  quick-sight  scent  at  a  dead  carcase)  to  ungrave  him  accord- 
'ingly.    To  Lutterworth  they  come,  Sumner,  Commissary, 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


9 


'Official,  Chancellor,  Proctors,  Doctors,  and  the  servants  (so 
'  that  the  remnant  of  the  body  would  not  hold  out  a  bone 
£  against  so  many  hands),  take  what  was  left  out  of  the  grave, 
6  and  burnt  them  to  ashes,  and  cast  them  into  Swift,  a  neigh- 
£  bouring  brook  running  hard  by.  Thus  this  brook  has  con- 
£  veyed  his  ashes  into  Avon,  Avon  into  Severn,  Severn  into  the 
£  narrow  Seas,  they  into  the  main  Ocean.  And  thus  the  ashes 
£  of  Wickliffe  are  the  emblem  of  his  doctrine,  which  now  is  dis- 
£  persed  all  the  world  over.' 1 

Beza's  selection  of  subjects  to  figure  in  this  book  of  Icons  is 
by  no  means  of  fanatically  exclusive,  or  even  strait-laced  char- 
acter. Erasmus,  a  tolerably  good  portrait,  and  a  mild,  lauda- 
tory, gentle,  and  apologetic  account  of  the  man,  is  one  of  his 
figures.  The  Printers,  Etienne,  Froben,  for  their  eximious 
services  in  the  cause  of  good  letters,  bonarum  literarum  ;  nay, 
King  Francis  I.  is  introduced  in  gallant  beaver  and  plume, 
with  his  surely  very  considerable  failings  well  veiled  in 
shadow,  and  hardly  anything  but  eulogy,  on  the  score  of  his 
beneficences  to  the  Paris  University, — and  probably  withal  of 
the  primitive  fact  that  he  was  Beza's  King.  £  Sham  Bishops, 
(pseiido-e!pi$coiri?  'cruel  murderers  of  God's  messengers,'  £  ser- 
vants of  Satan,'  and  the  like  hard  terms  are  indeed  never 
wanting  ;  but  on  the  whole  a  gentle  and  quiet  frame  of  mind 
is  traceable  in  Beza  throughout  ; — and  one  almost  has  the  sus- 
picion that,  especially  as  his  stock  both  of  Icons  and  of  facts  is 
so  poor,  one  considerable  subsidiary  motive  to  the  publication 
may  have  been  the  Forty  Emblems,  'pictures  qnas  Emblemata 
vocant,'  pretty  little  engravings  and  sprightly  Latin  verse 
which  follow  on  these  poor  prose  Icons  ;  and  testify  to  all  the 
intelligent  world  that  Beza's  fine  poetic  vein  is  still  flowing, 
and  without  the  much  censured  erotic,  or  other  impure  ele- 
ments, which  caused  so  much  scandal  in  his  younger  days. 

About  the  middle  of  the  Book  turns  up  a  brief,  vague  eulogy 
of  the  Beformation  in  Scotland,  with  only  two  characters  in- 
troduced :  Patrick  Hamilton,  the  Scottish  proto-martyr,  as 
second  in  the  list ;  and,  in  frank  disregard  of  the  chronology, 
as  first  and  leading  figure,  £  Johannes  Onoxus  Giffordiensis 
1  Fuller's  Church  History^  section  ii;  Look  iv- 


10 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


Scotus  ; '  and  to  the  surprise  of  every  reader  acquainted  with 
the  character  of  Knox,  as  written  indelibly  and  in  detail,  in 
his  words  and  actions  legible  to  this  day,  the  following  strange 
Icon  ;  very  difficult  indeed  to  accept  as  a  bodily  physiognomy 


IOANNES  CNOXVS. 


of  the  man  you  have  elsewhere  got  an  image  of  for  yourself 
by  industrious  study  of  these  same. 

Surely  quite  a  surprising  individual  to  have  kindled  all 
Scotland,  within  few  years,  almost  within  few  months,  into 
perhaps  the  noblest  flame  of  sacred  human  zeal,  and  brave  de* 


TUE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


11 


termination  to  believe  only  what  it  found  completely  believ- 
able, and  to  defy  the  whole  world  and  the  devil  at  its  back,  in 
unsubduable  defence  of  the  same.  Here  is  a  gentleman 
seemingly  of  a  quite  eupeptic,  not  to  say  stolid  and  thought- 
less frame  of  mind  ;  much  at  his  ease  in  Zion,  and  content  to 
take  things  as  they  come,  if  only  they  will  let  him  sleep  in  a 
whole  skin,  and  digest  his  victuals.  Knox,  you  can  well  per- 
ceive, in  all  his  waitings  and  in  all  his  way  of  life,  was  emphat- 
ically of  Scottish  build  ;  eminently  a  national  specimen  ;  in 
fact,  what  we  might  denominate  the  most  Scottish  of  Scots, 
and  to  this  day  typical  of  all  the  qualities  which  belong  nation- 
ally to  the  very  choicest  Scotsmen  we  have  known,  or  had  clear 
record  of :  utmost  sharpness  of  discernment  and  discrimina- 
tion, courage  enough,  and,  what  is  still  better,  no  particular 
consciousness  of  courage,  but  a  readiness  in  all  simplicity  to 
do  and  dare  whatsoever  is  commanded  by  the  inward  voice  of 
native  manhood  ;  on  the  whole  a  beautiful  and  simple  but 
complete  incompatibility  with  whatever  is  false  in  word  or 
conduct  ;  inexorable  contempt  and  detestation  of  what  in 
modern  speech  is  called  humbug.  Nothing  hypocritical,  fool- 
ish, or  untrue  can  find  harbour  in  this  man  ;  a  pure,  and 
mainly  silent,  tenderness  of  affection  is  in  him,  touches  of 
genial  humour  are  not  wanting  under  his  severe  austerity  ;  an 
occasional  growl  of  sarcastic  indignation  against  malfeasance, 
falsity  and  stupidity  ;  indeed  secretly  an  extensive  fund  of 
that  disposition,  kept  mainly  silent,  though  inwardly  in  daily 
exercise  ;  a  most  clear-cut,  hardy,  distinct,  and  effective  man  ; 
fearing  God  and  without  any  other  fear.  Of  all  this  you  in 
vain  search  for  the  smallest  trace  in  this  poor  Icon  of  Beza. 
No  feature  of  a  Scottish  man  traceable  there,  nor  indeed,  you 
would  say,  of  any  man  at  all ;  an  entirely  insipid,  expression- 
less individuality,  more  like  the  wooden  Figure-head  of  a  ship 
than  a  living  and  working  man  ;  highly  unacceptable  to  every 
physiognomic  reader  and  knower  of  Johannes  Cnoxus  Gifford- 
iensis  Scotus. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  a  surprise,  and  is  almost 
a  consolation,  to  find  that  Beza  has  as  little  knowledge  of 
Knox's  biography  as  of  his  natural  face.    Nothing  here,  or 


12 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX, 


hardly  anything  but  a  blotch  of  ignorant  confusion.  The  year 
of  Knox's  birth  is  unknown  to  Beza,  the  place  very  indistinctly 
known.  Beza  reports  him  to  have  studied  with  great  distinc- 
tion under  John  Major  at  St.  Andrews  ;  the  fact  being  that  he 
was  one  winter  under  Major  at  Glasgow,  but  never  under  Ma- 
jor at  St.  Andrews,  nor  ever  a  university  student  elsewhere  at 
all ;  that  his  admired  neological  prelections  at  St.  Andrews 
are  a  creature 'of  the  fancy  ;  and,  in  short,  that  Beza's  account 
of  that  early  period  is  mere  haze  and  ignorant  hallucination. 
Having  received  the  order  of  priesthood,  thinks  Beza,  he  set 
to  lecturing  in  a  so  valiantly  neological  tone  in  Edinburgh 
and  elsewhere  that  Cardinal  Beaton  could  no  longer  stand  it ; 
but  truculently  summoned  him  to  appear  in  Edinburgh  on  a 
given  day,  and  give  account  of  himself ;  whereupon  Knox, 
evading  the  claws  of  this  man-eater,  secretly  took  himself 
away  £  to  Hameston,' — a  town  or  city  unknown  to  geographers, 
ancient  or  modern,  but  which,  according  to  Beza,  was  then 
and  there  the  one  refuge  of  the  pious,  unicum  tunc  piorum 
asylum.  Towards  this  refuge  Cardinal  Beaton  thereupon  sent 
assassins  (entirely  imaginary),  who  would  for  certain  have  cut- 
off Knox  in  his  early  spring,  had  not  God's  providence  com- 
mended him  to  the  care  of  '  Langudrius,  a  principal  noble- 
man in  Scotland,'  by  whom  his  precioue  life  was  preserved. 
This  town  of  £  Hameston,  sole  refuge  of  the  pious,'  and  this 
protective  £  Langudrius,  a  principal  nobleman,'  are  extremely 
wonderful  to  the  reader  ;  and  only  after  a  little  study  do  you 
discover  that  £  Langudrius,  a  principal  nobleman,'  is  simply 
the  Laird  of  Lanyniddry,  and  that  £  Hameston,'  the  city  of 
refuge,  is  Cockburn  the  Laird  of  Ormistons  ;  both  of  whom 
had  Sons  in  want  of  education  ;  three  in  all,  two  of  Langnid- 
dry's  and  one  of  Ormiston's,  who,  especially  the  first,  had 
been  lucky  enough  to  secure  John  Knox's  services  tutor  ! 
The  rest  of  the  narrative  is  almost  equally  absurd,  or  only 
saved  from  being  so  by  its  emptiness  and  vagueness  ;  and  the 
one  certain  fact  we  come  upon  is  that  of  Knox's  taking  leave 
of  his  congregation,  and  shortly  afterwards  ordaining  in  their 
presence  his  successor,  chosen  by  them  and  him,  followed  by 
his  death  in  fifteen  days,  dates  all  accurately  given  ;  on  whisk 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


13 


latter  point,  what  is  curious  to  consider,  Beza  must  have  had 
exact  information,  not  mere  rumour. 

From  all  this  we  might  infer  that  Beza  had  never  personally 
had  the  least  acquaintance  with  Knox,  never  in  all  likelihood 
seen  him  with  eyes  ;  which  latter  a  strict  examination  of  the 
many  accurate  particulars  to  be  found  in  the  Lives  of  Beza, 
and  especially  in  Bayle's  multifarious  details  about  him, 
comes  to  seem  your  legitimate  conclusion.  Knox's  journeys 
to  Geneva,  and  his  two  several  residences  as  preacher  to  the 
Church  of  the  English  Exiles  there,  do  not  concide  with 
Beza's  contemporary  likelihoods  ;  nor  does  Beza  seem  to  have 
been  a  person  whom  Knox  would  have  cared  to  seek  out. 
Beza  was  at  Lausanne,  teaching  Greek,  and  not  known  other- 
wise than  as  a  much-censured,  fashionable  young  Frenchman 
and  too  erotic  Poet ;  nothing  of  theological  had  yet  come 
from  him, — except,  while  Knox  was  far  off,  the  questionable 
Apology  for  Calvin's  burning  of  Servetus,  which  cannot  have 
had  much  charm  for  Knox,  a  man  by  no  means  fond  of  public 
burning  as  an  argument  in  matters  of  human  belief,  rather 
the  reverse  by  all  symptoms  we  can  trace  in  him.  During 
Knox's  last  and  most  important  ministration  in  Geneva,  Beza, 
still  officially  Professor  of  Greek  at  Lausanne,  was  on  an  in- 
tricate mission  from  the  French  Huguenots  to  the  Protestant 
Prince  of  Germany,  and  did  not  come  to  settle  in  Geneva  till 
Spring,  1559,  several  months  after  Knox  had  permanently 
left  it. 

Directly  after  finishing  his  Book,  Beza  naturally  forwarded 
a  copy  to  Edinburgh,  to  the  little  patron  Sovereign  there  ; 
probably  with  no  writing  in  it ;  there  being  such  a  comforta- 
ble Dedication  and  Frontispiece  to  the  Book,  but  along  with 
it  a  short  letter  to  Buchanan,  the  little  King's  Head-tutor,  of 
which  happily  there  is  a  copy  still  preserved  to  us,  and  ready 
translated,  as  follows : 

'Behold,  my  dear  Buchanan,  a  notable  instance  of  double 
'  extravagance  in  a  single  act ;  affording  an  illustration  of  the 
'  characteristic  phrensy  of  poets, — provided  you  admit  me  to 
-  a  participation  of  that  title.  I  have  been  guilty  of  trifling 
'with  a  serious  subject,  and  have  dedicated  my  trifles  to  a 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


'  king.  If  with  your  usual  politeness,  and  in  consideration  of 
'  our  ancient  friendship,  you  should  undertake  to  excuse  both 
*  these  circumstances  to  the  King,  I  trust  the  matter  will  have 
'  a  fortunate  issue  :  but  if  you  refuse,  I  shall  be  disappointed 
4  in  my  expectations.  The  scope  of  this  little  work,  such  w; 
'  it  is,  you  will  learn  from  the  preface  ;  namely,  that  the 
'King,  when  he  shall  be  aware  of  the  high  expectations 
'  which  he  has  excited  in  all  the  Churches,  may  at  the  same 
' time,  delighted  with  those  various  and  excellent  examples, 
'become  more  and  more  familiar  with  his  duty.  Of  this 
'  Work  I  likewise  send  a  copy  to  you,  that  is,  owls  to  Athens  ; 
e  and  request  you  to  accept  it  as  a  token  of  my  regard.  My 
'  late  Paraphrase  of  the  Psalms,  if  it  has  reached  your  coun- 
try, will  I  hope  inspire  you  with  the  design  of  reprinting 
c  your  own,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  Church  :  and,  believe 
'  me,  it  is  not  so  much  myself  as  the  whole  Church  that  en- 
6  treats  you  to  accelerate  this  scheme.  Farewell,  excellent 
'man.  May  the  Lord  Jesus  bless  your  hoary  hairs  more  and 
'  more,  and  long  preserve  you  for  our  sake. — Geneva,  March 
4  the  sixteenth,  1580.' 1 

What  Buchanan  or  the  King  thought  of  this  Book,  espe- 
cially of  the  two  Icons,  Johannes  Cnoxus  and  the  little  silver 
Pepper-box  of  a  King,  we  have  not  anywhere  the  slightest  in- 
timation. But  one  little  fact,  due  to  the  indefatigable  scru- 
tiny and  great  knowledge  of  Mr.  David  Laing,  seems  worthy 
of  notice.  This  is  an  excerpt  from  the  Scottish  Koyal  Treas- 
urer's accounts,  of  date,  Junij  1581  (one  of  the  volumes  not 
yet  printed)  : 

'  Mm,  To  Adrianc  Vaensoun,  Fleming  painter,  for  twa  pic- 
'  turis  painted  be  him,  and  send '  (vent)  '  to  Theodoras  Besa, 
'  conforme  to  ane  preempt  as  the  samin  producit  upon  compt 
'  beris  81  10s'  (Us.  2d.  sterling). 

The  Item  and  Adrianc  indicate  a  clerk  of  great  ignorance. 
In  Painters'  Dictionaries  there  is  no  such  name  as  Vaensoun  ; 
but  there  is  a  famous  enough  Vansomer,  or  even  family  or 

1  Buchanani  Epistola?,  p.  28.  Translated  by  Dr.  Irving,  Life  and 
Writings  of  George  Buchanan  (Edinburgh,  1807),  p.  184. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


15 


clan  of  Vansomers,  natives  of  Antwerp  ;  one  of  whom,  Paulus 
Vansomer,  is  well  known  to  have  painted  with  great  accept- 
ance at  King  James's  Court  in  England  (from  1606  to  1620). 
He  died  here  in  1621 ;  and  is  buried  in  St.  Martin  s-in -the  - 
Fields.  Eximius  pictor.  It  is  barely  possible  this  '  Fleming 
painter'  may  have  been  some  individual  of  these  Vansomers ; 
but  of  course  the  fact  can  never  be  ascertained.  Much  more 
interesting  would  it  be  to  know  what  Theodorus  Beza  made 
of  the  '  twa  picturis 5  when  they  reached  him  at  Geneva  ;  and 
where,  if  at  all  in  rerum  7iaturd,  they  now  are !  All  we  can 
guess,  if  there  be  any  possibility  of  conjecturing  so  much  in 
the  vague,  is,  That  these  twa  picturis  might  be  portraits  of  His 
Majesty  and  Johannes  Cnoxus  by  an  artist  of  some  real  ability, 
intended  as  a  silent  protest  against  the  Beza  Pepper-box  and 
Figure-head,  in  case  the  Icones  ever  came  to  a  second  edition  ; 
which  it  never  did. 

Unknown  to  his  Scottish  Majesty,  and  before  the  '  Adrianc 
Vaensoun '  pictures  got  under  way,  or  at  least  before  they 
were  paid  for,  Monsieur  Simon  Goulart  had  got  out  his  French 
translation  of  Beza's  Book  ;  and  with  sufficient  emphasis  con- 
tradicted one  of  the  above  two  Icons,  that  of  £  Jean  Cnoxe  de 
Gifford  en  Ecosse,'  the  alone  important  of  the  two.  Goulart 
had  come  to  Geneva  some  eight  or  nine  years  before  ;  was  at 
this  time  Beza's  esteemed  colleague  and  co-presbyter,  ulti- 
mately Beza's  successor  in  the  chief  clerical  position  at 
Geneva ;  a  man  already  distinguished  in  the  world  ;  wrote 
twenty-one  books,  then  of  lively  acceptance  in  the  theological 
or  literary  world,  though  now  fallen  dim  enough  to  mankind. 
Goulart's  Book  had  the  same  publisher  as  Beza's  last  year, — 
Apud  Joannem  Laonium  ;  and  contains  a  kind  of  preface,  or 
rather  postscript,  for  it  is  introduced  at  the  end  of  the  Icons, 
and  before  his  translation  of  the  Emblems,  which  latter,  as 
will  be  seen,  he  takes  no  notice  of ;  nor  in  regard  to  the  Icons 
is  there  a  word  said  of  the  eleven  new  wood-cuts,  for  most  part 
of  superior  quality,  which.  Goulart  had  furnished  to  his  illus- 
trious friend  ;  but  only  some  apology  for  the  straggle  of 
French  verses,  which  he  has  been  at  the  pains  to  introduce  in 
his  own  zealous  person  at  the  end  of  many  of  the  Icons.  As 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX, 


the  piece  is  short  and  may  slightly  illustrate  the  relations  of 
Author  and  Translator,  we  give  it  here  entire  : 

4  Au  Lecteur. 

c  Da  consentement  de  M.  Theodore  de  Besze,  fay  iraduit  ce 
6  livre,  le  plus  fidelement  quil  m'a  este  possible.  Au  reste,  apris 
'  la  description  des  personnes  illustres  fai  ad j  oust  e  quelques  mm 
' franpais  d  chacun,  exprimant  comme fai  peu  les  epigramnies 
'  Latins  de  Vauteur  Id  oil  Us  se  sont  rencontrez,  et  fournissant  les 
(  autres  vers  de  ma  rude  invention:  ce  que  fay  voulu  vousfaire 
6  entendre,  afin  quon  nimputast  d  Vauteur  choses  quil  eust peu 
6  agencer  trop  mieux  sans  comparaison,  si  le  temps  lui  enst  per- 
e  mis  cefaire,  et  si  son  esprit  eust  encline  d  mettre  la  main  J 

Goulart's  treatment  of  his,  Beza's,  original  is  of  the  most 
conscientious  exactitude  ;  the  translation  everywhere  correct 
to  a  comma ;  true  everywhere  to  Beza's  meaning,  and  wher- 
ever possible,  giving  a  touch  of  new  lucidity  ;  he  uses  the 
same  wood-cuts  that  Beza  did,  plus  only  his  own  eleven,  of 
which,  as  already  said,  there  is  no  mention  or  hint.  In  one 
instance,  and  not  in  any  other,  has  an  evident  misfortune  be- 
fallen him,  in  the  person  of  his  printer.  The  printer  had  two 
wood-cuts  to  introduce  :  one  of  Jean  Diaze, — a  tragic  Spanish 
Protestant,  fratricidally  murdered  at  Neuburg  in  the  Ober- 
pfalz,  1546, — the  other  of  Melchior  Wolmar,  an  early  German 
friend  and  loved  intimate  of  Beza,  from  whom  Beza,  at  Orleans, 
had  learned  Greek  :  the  two  Icons  in  outline  have  a  certain 
vague  similarity,  which  had  deceived  the  too  hasty  printer  of 
Goulart,  who,  after  inserting  Beza's  Icon  of  Diaze,  again  in- 
serts it,  instead  of  Wolmar.  This  is  the  one  mistake  or  palpa- 
ble oversight  discoverable  in  Goulart's  accurately  conscientious 
labour,  which  everywhere  else  reproduces  Beza  as  in  a  clear 
mirror.  But  there  is  one  other  variation,  not,  as  seems  to  us, 
by  mere  oversight  of  printer  or  pressman,  but  by  clear  intention 
on  the  part  of  Goulart,  which  is  of  the  highest  interest  to  our 
readers  :  the  notable  fact,  namely,  that  Goulart  has,  of  his 
own  head,  silently  altogether  withdrawn  the  Johannes  Cnoxus 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


17 


of  Beza,  and  substituted  for  it  this  now  adjoined  Icon,  one  of 
Ins  own  eleven,  which  has  no  relation  or  resemblance  whatever 
to  the  Beza  likeness,  or  to  any  other  ever  known  of  Knox.  A 
portrait  recognizably  not  of  Knox  at  all ;  but  of  "William  Tyn- 
dale,  translator  of  the  Bible,  a  fellow-exile  of  Knox  at  Geneva  ; 
which  is  found  repeated  in  all  manner  of  collections,  and  is 
now  everywhere  accepted  as  Tyndale's  likeness ! 


JEAN  CNOX  DE  GIFFORD 

EN  ESCOSSE 


This  surely  is  a  wonderful  transaction  of  the  part  of  con- 
scientious, hero-worshipping  Goulart  towards  his  hero  Beza  ; 
and,  indeed,  will  seem  to  most  persons  to  be  explicable  only 
on  the  vague  hypothesis  that  some  old  or  middle-aged  inhabi- 
tant cif  Geneva,  who  had  there  sometimes  transiently  seen 
2 


IS  THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


Knox,  twenty-one  years  ago  (Knox  had  left  Geneva  in  Jan- 
uary, 1559,  and,  preaching  to  a  group  of  poor  English  exiles, 
probably  was  never  very  conspicuous  there),  had  testified  to 
Beza  or  to  Goulart  that  the  Beza  Figure-head  was  by  no 
means  a  likeness  of  Knox  ;  which  fatal  information,  on  in- 
quiry, had  been  confirmed  into  clear  proof  in  the  negative, 
and  that  Beza  and  Goulart  had  thereupon  become  convinced  ; 
and  Goulart,  with  Beza,  taking  a  fresh  and  again  unfortunate 
departure,  had  agreed  that  here  was  the  real  Dromio,  and 
had  silently  inserted  William  Tyndale  accordingly.  This  is 
only  a  vague  hypothesis,  for  why  did  not  the  old  or  middle- 
aged  inhabitant  of  Geneva  testify  with  equal  certainty  that 
the  Tyndale  wood-cut  was  just  as  little  a  likeness  of  Knox, 
and  check  Goulart  and  Beza  in  their  newT  unfortunate  advent- 
ure ?  But  to  us  the  conclusion,  which  is  not  hypothetical  at 
all,  must  surely  be  that  neither  Beza  nor  Goulart  had  any 
knowledge  whatever  of  the  real  physiognomy  or  figure  of  Jo- 
hannes Cnoxus,  and  in  all  subsequent  researches  on  that  sub- 
ject are  to  be  considered  mutually  annihilative  ;  and  any  tes- 
timony they  could  give  mere  zero,  and  of  no  account  at  all. 

This,  however,  was  by  no  means  the  result  which  actually 
followed.  TwTenty-two  years  after  this  of  Beza  (1602),  a  Dutch 
Theologian,  one  Verheiden,  whose  knowledge  of  theological 
Icons  was  probably  much  more  distinct  than  Beza's,  published 
at  the  Hague  a  folio  entitled  Prcestantium  aliquot  Theologorum 
dec.  Effigies,  in  which  Knox  figures  in  the  following  new  form  ; 
done,  as  the  signature  bears,  by  Hondius,  an  Engraver  of 
known  merit,  but  cognizant  seemingly  of  Beza's  Book  only, 
and  quite  ignorant  of  Goulart's  translation  and  its  Tyndale 
Knox,  who  presents  us,  to  our  surprise,  on  this  occasion  with 
the  following  portrait ;  considerably  more  alive  and  credible 
as  a  human  being  than  Beza's  Figure-head  ;  and  bearing  on 
it  the  monogram  of  Hondius ;  so  that  at  least  its  authorship 
is  indisputable. 

This,  as  the  reader  sees,  represents  to  us  a  much  more  ef- 
fective-looking man  in  matters  of  reformation  or  vigorous  ac- 
tion ;  in  fact,  it  has  a  kind  of  browbeating  or  almost  bullying 
aspect ;  a  decidedly  self-sufficient  man,  but  with  no  trace  of 


TEE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX.  21 

feature  in  him  that  physiognomically  can  remind  us  of  Knox. 
The  river  of  beard  flowing  from  it  is  grander  than  that  in  the 
Figure-head,  and  the  Book  there,  with  its  right  hand  remind- 
ing you  of  a  tied-up  bundle  of  carrots  supporting  a  kind  of 
loose  little  volume,  are  both  charitably  withdrawn.  This  wood- 
cut, it  appears,  pleased  the  late  Sir  David  Wilkie  best  of  all 
the  Portraits  he  had  seen,  and  was  copied  or  imitated  by  him 
in  that  notable  Picture  of  his,  'Knox  preaching  before  Queen 
Mary/ — one  of  the  most  impossible  pictures  ever  painted  by  a 
man  of  such  indubitable  genius,  including  therein  piety,  enthu- 
siasm, and  veracity, — in  brief  the  probably  intolerablest  figure 
that  exists  of  Knox  ;  and  from  one  of  the  noblest  of  Scottish 
painters  the  least  expected.  Such  by  accident  was  the  honour 
done  to  Hondius's  impossible  Knox  ;  not  to  our  advantage, 
but  the  contrary.  All  artists  agree  at  once  that  this  of  Hon- 
dius  is  nothing  other  than  an  improved  reproduction  of  the 
old  Beza  Figure-head  ;  the  face  is  turned  to  the  other  side, 
but  the  features  are  preserved,  so  far  as  adding  some  air  at 
least  of  animal  life  would  permit  ;  the  costume,  carefully  in- 
cluding the  little  patch  of  ruffles  under  the  jaw,  is  reproduced  ; 
and  in  brief  the  conclusion  is  that  Hondius  or  Verheiden  had 
no  doubt  but  the  Beza  portrait,  though  very  dead  and  boiled- 
looking,  had  been  essentially  like,  and  needed  only  a  little 
kindling  up  from  its  boiled  condition  to  be  satisfactory  to  the 
reader.  Goulart's  French  Translation  of  Beza,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  Tyndale  figure  there,  as  we  have  said,  seems 
to  be  unknown  to  Verheiden  and  his  Hondius  ;  indeed,  Ver- 
heiden's  library,  once  furnished  with  a  Beza,  having  no  use 
for  a  poor  Interpretation.  In  fact,  we  should  rather  guess  the 
success  of  Goulart  in  foreign  parts,  remote  from  Geneva  and 
its  reading  population,  to  have  been  inconsiderable  ;  at  least 
in  Scotland  and  England,  where  no  mention  of  it  or  allusion 
to  it  is  made,  and  where  the  Book  at  this  day  is  fallen  ex- 
tremely scarce  in  comparison  with  Beza's  ;  no  copy  to  be 
found  in  the  British  Museum,  and  dealers  in  old  books  testi- 
fying that  it  is  of  extreme  rarity  ;  and  would  now  bring,  said 
one  experienced-looking  old  man,  perhaps  twenty  guineas. 
Beza's  boiled  Figure-head  appears  to  have  been  regarded  as  the 


22 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


one  canonical  Knox,  and  the  legitimate  function  of  every 
limner  of  Knox  to  be  that  of  Hondius,  the  reproduction  of  the 
Beza  Figure-head,  with  such  improvements  and  invigorations 
as  his  own  best  judgment  or  happiest  fancy  might  suggest.  Of 
the  Goulart  substitution  of  Tyndale  for  Knox,  there  seems  to 
have  been  no  notice  or  remembrance  anywhere,  or  if  any,  then 
only  a.  private  censure  and  suppression  of  the  Goulart  and  his 
Tyndale.  Meanwhile,  such  is  the  wild  chaos  of  the  history  of 
bad  prints,  the  whirligig  of  time  did  bring  about  revenge  upon 
poor  Beza.  In  Les  Portraits  des  Homines  lllustres  qui  ont  le 
plus  contribute  au  Retablissement  des  belles  lettres  et  de  la  vraye 
Religion  (JJ  Geneve,  1673),  the  wood-cut  of  Knox  is  content- 
edly given,  as  Goulart  gave  it  in  his  French  Translation ;  and 
for  that  of  Beza  himself  the  boiled  Figure-head,  which  Beza 
denominated  Knox !  The  little  silver  Pepper-box  is  like- 
wise given  again  there  as  portrait  of  Jacobus  VI., — Jacobus 
\  /ho  had,  in  the  meantime,  grown  to  full  stature,  and  died 
.some  fifty  years  ago.  For  not  in  nature,  but  only  in  some 
chaos  thrice  coufounded,  with  Egyptian  darkness  superadded, 
is  there  to  be  found  any  history  comparable  to  that  of  old  bad 
prints.  For  example,  of  that  disastrous  old  Figure-head,  pro- 
duced to  view  by  Beza,  wTho  or  what  did  draw  it,  when  or  from 
what  authority,  if  any,  except  that  evidently  some  human  be- 
ing did,  and  presumably  from  some  original  or  other,  must 
remain  forever  a  mystery.  In  a  large  Granger,  fifty  or  sixty 
big  folios,  and  their  thousands  of  prints,  I  have  seen  a  sum- 
mary collection,  of  the  latter  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  of  some 
fourteen  or  fifteen  Heroes  of  the  Beformation,  Knox  among 
them  ;  all  flung  down  in  the  form  of  big  circular  blotch,  like 
the  opened  eggs  for  an  omelet,  and  among  these  fourteen  or 
fifteen  egg-yolks  hardly  two  of  which  you  could  determine 
even  what  they  wished  to  resemble. 

For  the  last  century  or  so,  by  far  the  most  famed  and 
trusted  of  Scottish  Knox  Portraits  has  been  that  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Torphichen  family,  at  Calder  House,  some 
twelve  or  more  miles  from  Edinburgh.  This  Picture  was 
public  here  in  the  Portrait  Exhibition  in  1869,  and  a  photo- 


THE  TORPHICHEN  PORTRAIT. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


25 


grajDli  or  attempt  at  photograph  was  taken  of  it,  but  with 
little  success,  the  colours  having  mostly  grown  so  black.  By 
the  great  kindness  of  the  now  Lord  Torphichen,  the  Picture 
was,  with  prompt  and  conspicuous  courtesy,  which  I  shall  not 
soon  forget,  sent  up  again  for  inspection  here,  and  examina- 
tion by  artistic  judges  ;  and  was  accordingly  so  examined 
and  inspected  by  several  persons  of  eminence  in  that  depart- 
ment ;  all  of  whom  were,  almost  at  first  sight,  unanimous  in 
pronouncing  it  to  be  a  picture  of  no  artistic  merit ;  impossi- 
ble to  ascribe  it  to  any  namable  painter,  having  no  style  or 
worth  in  it,  as  a  painting  ;  guessable  to  be  perhaps  under  a 
century  old,  and  very  clearly  an  improved  copy  from  the 
Beza  Figure-head.  Of  course  no  photographing  was  at- 
tempted on  our  part ;  but  along  with  it  there  had  been  most 
obligingly  sent  a  copy  of  the  late  Mr.  Penny  of  Calder's  en- 
graving ;  a  most  meritorious  and  exact  performance,  of  which 
no  copy  was  discoverable  in  the  London  shops,  though  at  Mr. 
Graves's  and  elsewhere  were  found  one  or  two  others  of  much 
inferior  exactitude  to  Mr.  Penny's  engraving  : — of  this  a  pho- 
tograph was  taken,  which,  in  the  form  of  wood-cut,  is  sub- 
joined on  page  23. 

This  Torphichen  Picture  is  essentially  like  the  Beza  wood- 
cut, though  there  has  been  a  strenuous  attempt  on  the  part 
of  the  hopelessly  incompetent  Painter  to  improve  upon  it, 
successful  chiefly  in  the  matter  of  the  bunch  of  carrots,  which 
is  rendered  almost  like  a  human  hand  ;  for  the  rest  its  origi- 
nal at  once  declares  itself,  were  it  only  by  the  loose  book  held 
in  said  hand  ;  by  the  form  of  the  nose  and  the  twirl  of  ruffles 
under  the  left  cheek  ;  clearly  a  bad  picture,  done  in  oil,  some 
generations  ago,  for  which  the  Beza  Figure-head  served  as  a 
model,  accidentally  raised  to  pictorial  sovereignty  by  the  vox 
populi  of  Scotland.  On  the  back  of  the  canvas,  in  clear, 
strong  hand,  by  all  appearance  less  than  a  century  old,  are 
written  these  words  :  c  Bev.  Mr.  John  Knox.  The  first  sacra- 
'  ment  of  the  Supper  given  in  Scotland  after  the  Reformation 
'  was  dispensed  by  him  in  this  hall.'  A  statement,  it  appears, 
which  is  clearly  erroneous,  if  that  were  of  much  moment. 
The  Picture  as  a  guide  to  the  real  likeness  of  Knox  was 


26  THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


judged  by  us  to  offer  no  help  whatever ;  but  does  surely  tes- 
tify the  Protestant  zeal  of  some  departed  Lord  Torphichen  ; 
and,  indeed,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  conspicuous  fidelity 
of  that  noble  house  in  all  its  branches  to  Knox  and  his  Refor- 
mation from  first  to  last,  through  all  his  and  its  perils  and 
struggles,  has  been  the  chief  cause  of  its  singular  currency  in 
Scotland  in  the  later  generation  or  two.  Certain  the  picture 
is  a  poor  and  altogether  commonplace  reproduction  of  the 
Beza  Figure-head  ;  and  has  nevertheless,  as  I  am  assured  by 
judgments  better  than  my  own,  been  the  progenitor  of  all,  or 
nearly  all,  the  incredible  Knoxes,  the  name  of  which  is  now 
legion.  Nearly  all,  I  said, — not  quite  all,  for  one  or  two  set 
up  to  be  originals,  not  said  by  whom,  and  seem  to  partake 
more  of  the  Hondius  type  ;  having  a  sullen  or  sulky  expres- 
sion superadded  to  the  self-sufficiency  and  copious  river  of 
beard  bestowed  by  Hondius. 

The  so-called  original  Knox,  still  in  Glasgow  University,  is 
thus  described  to  me  by  a  friendly  Scottish  artist,  Mr.  Robert 
Tait,  Queen  Anne  Street,  of  good  faculties  and  opportunities 
in  such  things,  as  of  doubtful  derivation  from  the  Beza  Icon, 
though  engraved  and  recommended  as  such  by  Pinkerton, 
and  as  being  an  6  altogether  weak  and  foolish  head.'  From 
the  same  artist  I  also  learn  that  the  bronze  figure  in  the 
monument  at  Glasgow  is  a  visible  derivative  from  Beza, 
through  Torphichen.  And,  in  brief,  this  poor  Figure-head 
has  produced,  and  is  still  producing,  through  various  venters, 
a  quite  Protean  pecus  of  incredible  portraits  of  Knox ; — the 
latest  of  note,  generally  known,  is  M'Crie's  frontispiece  to  the 
Life  of  Knox }  and  probably  the  most  widely  spread  in  our 
generation  that  given  in  Chambers's  Biographical  Dictionary. 
A  current  portrait,  I  suppose  of  the  last  century,  although 
there  is  no  date  on  it,  in  the  possession  of  'Miss  Knox  of 
'Edinburgh,  painted  by  De  Vos,'  has  some  air  of  generic  dif- 
ference, but  is  evidently  of  filiality  to  Hondius  or  Torphichen 
withal  ;  and  as  to  its  being  painted  by  De  Vos,  there  is  no 
trace  of  that  left  visible,  nor  of  Miss  Knox,  the  once  propri- 
etress ;  not  to  add  that  there  is  a  whole  clan  of  Dutch  De 
Voses,  and  no  Christian  name  for  the  Miss  Knox  one.  An- 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX.  27 


other  picture,  not  without  impressive  ness,  has  still  its  original 
in  Holyrood  House  ;  and  is  thought  to  be  of  some  merit,  and 
of  a  different  clan  from  the  Torphichen  ;  but  with  a  pair  of 
compasses  in  the  hand  of  it,  instead  of  a  Bible  ;  and,  indeed, 
has  been  discovered  by  Mr.  Laing  to  be  the  portrait  of  an 
architect  or  master-builder,  and  to  be  connected  merely  with 
the  sedilities,  not  with  the  theologies  of  Holyrood  House.  A 
much  stranger  '  original  Picture  of  Knox '  is  still  to  be  found 
in  Hamilton  Palace,  but  it  represents  unfortunately,  not  the 
Prophet  of  the  Reformation,  but  to  all  appearance  the  profes-^ 
sional  Merry  Andrew  of  that  family. — Another  artist  friend 
of  great  distinction,  Mr.  J.  E.  Boehm,  sculptor,  sums  up  his 
first  set  of  experiences,  which  have  since  been  carried  to  such 
lengths  and  depths,  in  these  words,  dated  January  28,  1874  : 
•  I  called  to  thank  you  for  the  loan  of  John  Knox's  portrait ' 
(Engraving  of  the  Somerville,  of  which  there  will  be  speech 
enough  by  and  by),  £  and  to  beg  you  to  do  me  the  favour  of 
c  looking  at  the  sketches  which  I  have  modelled,  and  to  give 
'  me  your  valuable  opinion  about  them. — I  have  just  been  to 
'the  British  Museum,  and  have  seen  engravings  after  four 
'  pictures  of  John  Knox.  The  only  one  which  looks  done 
1  from  nature,  and  a  really  characteristic  portrait,  is  that  of 
'  which  you  have  a  print.  It  is,  I  find,  from  a  picture  "  in 
'  the  possession  of  Lord  Somerville."  Two  more,  which  are 
'  very  like  each  other  in  quality,  and  in  quantity  of  beard  and 
■  garments,  are,  one  in  the  possession  of  a  Miss  Knox  of  Edin- 
'  burgh  (painted  by  De  Vos),  the  other  at  Calder  House  (Lord 

*  Torphichen's).  The  fourth,  which  is  very  bad,  wherein  he 
'is  represented  laughing  like  a  " Hofnarr"  is  from  a  paint- 
g  ing  in  Hamilton  Palace  ;  but  cannot  possibly  have  been 

*  the  John  Knox,  as  he  has  a  turned-up  nose  and  looks  funny.' 

But  enough  now,  and  more  than  enough  of  the  soul- con- 
fusing spectacle  of  Proteus  driving  all  his  monstrous  flock, 
product  of  chaos,  to  view  the  lofty  mountains  and  the  sane 
minds  of  men. 

n. 

Will  the  reader  consent,  at  this  stage  of  our  little  enter- 
prise, to  a  few  notices  or  excerpts  direct  from  Knox  himself  ; 


28 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNCX. 


from  his  own  writings  and  actions :  perhaps  it  may  be  possi- 
ble from  these,  even  on  the  part  of  outsiders  and  strangers  to 
Knox,  to  catch  some  glimpses  of  his  inward  physiognomy, 
though  all  credible  traces  of  his  outward  or  bodily  lineaments 
appear  hitherto  to  have  fallen  impossible.  Here  is  a  small 
touch  of  mirth  on  the  part  of  Knox,  from  whom  we  are  ac- 
customed to  expect  very  opposite  things.  It  is  the  report  of 
a  Sermon  by  one  Arth,  a  Black  or  Gray  Friar,  of  the  St. 
Andrews  neighbourhood,  seemingly  a  jocular  person,  though 
not  without  serious  ideas  :  Sermon,  which  was  a  discourse  on 
'  Cursing '  (Clerical  Excommunication),  a  thing  the  priests 
were  wonderfully  given  to  at  that  time,  had  been  preached 
first  in  Dundee,  and  had  got  for  poor  Arth  from  certain  jack- 
men  of  the  Bishop  of  Brechin,  instead  of  applause,  some  hus- 
tling and  even  cuffing,  followed  by  menaces  and  threatened 
tribulation  from  the  Bishop  himself  ;  till  Arth  got  permission 
to  deliver  his  sermon  again  in  the  Kirk  of  St.  Andrews  to  a 
distinguished  audience,  who  voted  the  purport  and  substance 
of  it  to  be  essentially  true  and  justifiable.  Here,  at  second 
hand,  is  Knox's  summary  of  the  discourse,  written  many  years 
after  : 

c  The  theme  '  (text)  c  of  his  sermon  was  <c  Yeritie  is  the  strong- 
c  est  of  all  things."  His  discourse  of  Cursing  was,  That  if  it 
6  were  rightly  used,  it  was  the  most  fearful  thing  upon  the  face 
'  of  the  earth  ;  for  it  was  the  very  separation  of  man  from  God  ; 
'  but  that  it  should  not  be  used  rashly  and  for  every  light 
'  cause,  but  only  against  open  and  incorrigible  sinners,  But 
'  now  (said  he)  the  avarice  of  priests  and  the  ignorance  of 
'  their  office  has  caused  it  altogether  to  be  vilipended  ;  for  the 
'  priest  (said  he),  whose  duty  and  office  is  to  pray  for  the 
'  people,  stands  up  on  Sunday  and  cries,  "  Ane  has  tynt  a 
'  spurtil "  (lost  a  porridge  stick).  "  There  is  ane  flail  stolen 
'from  them  beyond  the  burn."  "The  goodwife  of  the  other 
'  side  of  the  gate  has  tynt  a  horn  spune  "  (lost  a  horn  spoon). 
6  "  God's  maleson  and  mine  I  give  to  them  that  knows  of  this 
'  gear  and  restores  it  not."  How  the  people  mocked  their 
'  cursing,  he  farther  told  a  merry  tale  ;  how,  after  a  sermon 
'  he  had  made  at  Dumfermling,  he  came  to  a  house  where 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX.  29 

'  gossips  were  drinking  their  Sunday's  penny,  and  he,  being 
'  dry,  asked  drink.  "  Yes,  Father  (said  one  of  the  gossips), 
\  ye  shall  have  drink  ;  but  ye  maun  first  resolve  ane  doubt 
'  which  is  risen  among  us,  to  wit,  what  servant  will  serve  a 
'man  best  on  least  expenses."  "The  good  Angel  (said  I), 
'  who  is  man's  keeper,  who  makes  greatest  service  without  ex- 
penses." "Tush  (said  the  gossip),  we  mean  no  so  high  mat- 
ters :  we  mean,  what  honest  man  will  do  greatest  service  for 
'  least  expenses  ?  "  And  while  I  was  musing  (said  the  Friar) 
'  what  that  should  mean,  he  said,  "  I  see,  Father,  that  the 
'  greatest  clerks  are  not.  the  wisest  men.  Know  ye  not  how 
'  the  Bishops  and  their  officials  serve  as  husbandmen  ?  Will 
'  they  not  give  to  us  a  letter  of  Cursing  for  a  plack  "  (say,  far- 
c  thing  English),  6i  to  last  for  a  year,  to  curse  all  that  look  ower 
'  our  dyke  ?  and  that  keeps  our  corn  better  nor  the  sleeping 
6  boy  that  will  have  three  shillings  of  fee,  a  sark  and  a  pair  of 
'  shoon  "  (shirt  and  a  pair  of  shoes)  "  in  the  year.  And  there- 
'fore,  if  their  cursing  dow  "  (avail)  "anything,  we  hold  the 
'  Bishops  best-cheap  servants  in  that  respect  that  are  within 
<  the  realm.'"1 

Knox  never  heard  this  discourse  himself  ;  far  away  he  from 
Arth  and  St.  Andrews  at  that  time.  But  he  has  contrived  to 
make  out  of  it  and  the  circumstances  surrounding  a  little 
picture  of  old  Scotch  life,  bright  and  real  looking,  as  if  by 
Teniers  or  Ostade. 

Knox's  first  concern  with  anything  of  Public  History  in 
Scotland  or  elsewhere,  and  this  as  yet  quite  private  and  noted 
only  by  himself,  is  his  faithful  companionship  of  the  noble 
martyr  Wishart,  in  the  final  days  of  his  sore  pilgrimage  and 
battle  in  this  world.  Wishart  had  been  driven  out  of  Scot- 
land, while  still  quite  young,  for  his  heretical  proceedings ; 
and  had  sought  refuge  in  England  ;  had  gained  great  love  for 

1  The  Works  of  John  Knox,  collected  and  edited  by  David  Laing  (the 
first  complete  and  perfectly  annotated  Edition  ever  given  :  a  highly 
meritorious,  and,  considering  all  the  difficulties,  intrinsic  and  accidental, 
even  a  heroic  Performance  ;  for  which  all  Scotland,  and  in  a  sense  all 
the  world,  is  a  debtor  to  Mr.  Laing).  Edinburgh,  1846-1864,  vol.  i. 
p.  37  et  seq. 


20 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


his  fine  character  and  qualities,  especially  during  his  stay,  of 
a  year  or  more,  in  Cambridge  University,  as  one  of  his  most 
ardent  friends  and  disciples  there,  Emery  Tylney,  still  co- 
piously testifies,  in  what  is  now  the  principal  record  and  ex- 
tant biography  of  Wishart, — still  preserved  in  Foxe's  Mar- 
tyrology. 

In  consequence  of  the  encouraging  prospects  that  had  risen 
in  Scotland,  Wishart  returned  thither  in  1546,  and  began 
preaching,  at  last  publicly,  in  the  streets  of  Dundee,  with 
great  acceptance  from  the  better  part  of  the  population  there. 
Perils  and  loud  menacings  from  official  quarters  were  not 
wanting  ;  finally  Wishart  had  moved  to  other  safer  places  of 
opportunity  ;  thence  back  to  Dundee,  where  pestilence  was 
raging  ;  and  there,  on  impulse  of  his  own  conscience  only, 
had  ' planted  himself  between  the  living  and  the  dead,'  and 
been  to  many  a  visible  terrestial  help  and  comfort, — not  to 
speak  of  a  celestial.  The  pest  abating  at  Dundee,  he  went  to 
East  Lothian  ;  and  there,  with  Haddington  for  headquarters, 
and  some  principal  gentry,  especially  the  Lairds  of  Langnid- 
dry  and  Ormiston,  protecting  and  encouraging,  and  beyond  all 
others  with  John  Knox,  tutor  to  these  gentlemen's  sons,  at- 
tending him,  with  the  liveliest  appreciation  and  most  admir- 
ing sympathy, — indeed,  acting,  it  would  seem,  as  Captain  of 
his  Body-guard.  For  it  is  marked  as  a  fact  that  the  mon- 
strous Cardinal  Beaton  had  in  this  case  appointed  a  specific 
assassin,  a  devil-serving  Priest,  to  track  Wishart  diligently  in 
these  journeyings  about  of  his,  which  were  often  nocturnal  and 
opportune  for  such  a  thing,  and,  the  sooner  the  better,  do  him 
to  death  ;  and  on  the  one  clear  glimpse  allowed  us  of  Knox, 
it  was  he  that  carried  the  '  two-handed  sword  '  provided  for 
Wishart's  safety  against  such  chances.  This  assassin  project 
against  Wishart  is  probably  the  origin  of  Beza's  notion  about 
Beaton's  intention  to  assassinate  Knox  ;  who  was  at  this  time 
far  below  the  notice  of  such  a  high  mightiness,  and  in  all  prob- 
ability had  never  been  heard  of  by  him.  Knox  had  been 
privately  a  most  studious,  thoughtful,  and  intelligent  man  for 
long  years,  but  was  hitherto,  though  now  in  his  forty-first 
year,  known  only  as  tutor  to  the  three  sons  of  Langniddry 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


31 


and  Ormiston  ('Langudrius  and  Hamestonum ')  ;  and  did  evi- 
dently carry  the  two-handed  sword  on  the  last  occasion  on 
vfhich  it  could  have  availed  in  poor  Wishart's  case. 

Knox's  account  of  Wishart,  written  down  hastily  twenty 
years  after,  in  his  History  of  tlie  Reformation,  is  full  of  a 
noble,  heart-felt,  we  might  call  it  holy  sympathy, — pious  and 
pure  in  a  high  degree.  The  noble  and  zealous  Wishart,  'at 
'  the  end  of  the  Holy  dayis  of  Yule,'  1546,  came  to  Hadding- 
ton, full  of  hope  that  the  great  tidings  he  was  preaching  would 
find  a  fervour  of  acceptance  from  the  people  there  ;  but  Wis- 
hart's  disappointment,  during  the  three  days  and  nights  that 
this  visit  lasted,  was  mournfully  great.  The  first  day  the 
audience  was  considerable  (what  Knox  calls  c  reasonable '), 
but  nothing  like  what  had  been  expected,  and  formerly  usual 
to  Wishart  in  that  kirk  on  such  occasions.  The  second  day 
it  was  worse,  and  the  third  'so  sclender,  that  many  won- 
c  dered.'  The  fact  was  that  the  Earl  of  Bothwell,  the  after- 
wards so  famous  and  Infamous,  at  this  time  High  Sheriff  of 
the  County  of  Haddington,  and  already  a  stirring  question- 
able gentleman  of  ambidexterous  ways,  had  been  busy,  pri- 
vately intimating  from  his  great  Cardinal  that  it  might  be 
dangerous  to  hear  Wishart  and  his  preachings  ;  and  that  pru- 
dent people  would  do  well  to  stay  away.  The  second  night 
Wishart  had  lodged  at  Lethington,  with  Maitland,  father  of 
the  afterwards  notable  Secretary  Lethington  (a  pleasant  little 
twinkle  of  interest  to  secular  readers) ;  and  the  elder  Lething- 
ton, though  not  himself  a  declared  Protestant,  had  been  hos- 
pitably good  and  gracious  to  Wishart. 

The  third  day  he  was  again  appointed  to  preach  ;  but,  says 
Knox,  6  before  his  passing  to  the  sermon  there  came  to  him  a 
6  boy  with  ane  letter  from  the  West  land,' — Ayr  and  the  other 
zealous  shires  in  that  quarter,  in  which  he  had  already  been 
preaching, — £  saying  that  the  gentlemen  there  could  not  keep 
'  diet  with  him  at  Edinburgh,  as  they  had  formerly  agreed ? 
(Hope  that  there  might  have  been  some  Bond  or  engagement 
for  mutual  protection  on  the  part  of  these  Western  Gentle- 
men suddenly  falling  vain  for  poor  Wishart).  Wishart'^ 
spirits  were  naturally  in  deep  depression  at  this  news,  and  at 


32 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


such  a  silence  of  the  old  zeal  all  round  him  ; — all  the  world 
seeming  to  forsake  him,  and  only  the  Cardinal's  assassin 
tracking  him  with  continual  menace  of  death.  He  called  for 
Knox,  '  who  had  awaited  upon  him  carefully  from  the  time  he 
'  came  to  Lothian  ;  with  whom  he  began  to  enter  in  purpose  * 
(to  enter  on  discourse)  '  that  he  wearied  of  the  world,  for  he 
6  perceived  that  men  began  to  weary  of  God/  Knox,  '  won- 
'  dering  that  he  desired  to  keep  any  purpose  before  Sermon 
'  (for  that  was  never  his  accustomed  use  before),  said,  "  Sir,  the 
'  time  of  Sermon  approaches  :  I  will  lea,ve  you  for  the  present 

*  to  your  meditation  ;"  and  so  took  the  letter  aforesaid,  and  left 
e  him.  The  said  Maister  George  spaced  up  and  down  behind 
'  the  high  altar  more  than  half  an  hour :  his  very  countenance 
'  and  visage  declared  the  grief  and  alteration  of  his  mind.  At 
'  last  he  passed  to  the  pulpit,  but  the  auditure  was  small. 
'  He  should  have  begun  to  have  entreated  the  Second  Table 
'  of  the  Law ;  but  thereof  in  that  sermon  he  spake  very  little, 
'  but  began  on  this  manner  :  "O  Lord,  how  long  shall  it  be 
'  that  thy  holy  word  shall  be  despised,  and  men  shall  not  re- 
'  gard  their  own  salvation.  I  have  heard  of  thee,  Haddington, 
4  that  in  thee  would  have  been  at  ane  vain  Clerk  Play  "  (Mys- 

*  tery  Play)  "  two  or  three  thousand  people  ;  and  now  to  hear 
'  the  messenger  of  the  Eternal  God,  of  all  thy  town  or  parish, 

*  cannot  be  numbered  a  hundred  persons.  Sore  and  fearful 
'  shall  the  plagues  be  that  shall  ensue  this  thy  contempt : 
'  with  fire  and  sword  thou  shalt  be  plagued ;  yea,  thou  Had- 

*  dington,  in  special,  strangers,  shall  possess  thee,  and  you  the 
'  present  inhabitants  shall  either  in  bondage  serve  your  ene- 
'  mies  or  else  ye  shall  be  chased  from  your  own  habitation, 
'  and  that  because  ye  have  not  known,  nor  will  not  know,  the 

*  time  of  God's  merciful  visitation."    In  such  vehemency  and 

*  threatening^  continued  that  servant  of  God  near  an  hour 
'  and  a  half,  in  the  which  he  declared  all  the  plagues  that  en- 

*  sued,  as  plainly  as  after '  (afterwards)  '  our  eyes  saw  them 
'performed.  In  the  end  he  said,  "I  have  forgotten  myself 
'  and  the  matter  that  I  should  have  entreated  ;  but  let  these 

*  my  last  words  as  concerning  public  preaching  remain  in 

*  your  minds,  till  that  God  send  you  new  comfort,"  There- 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


33 


1  after  lie  made  a  short  paraphrase  upon  the  Second  Table  of 
6  the  Law,  with  an  exhortation  to  patience,  to  the  fear  of 
'  God,  and  unto  the  works  of  mercy  ;  and  so  put  end,  as  it 
6  were  making  his  last  testament.' 1 

The  same  night,  on  Wishart's  departing  from  Haddington, 
£  he  took  his  good-night,  as  it  were,  forever  of  all  his  acquaint- 
'  ance,'  says  Knox,  '  especially  from  Hew  Douglas  of  Lang- 
'  nicldry.  John  Knox  pressing  to  have  gone  with  him,  he 
c  said,  "Nay,  return  to  your  bairnes"  (pupils);  "  and  God 
6  bless  you.  One  is  sufficient  for  one  sacrifice."  And  so  he 
c  caused  a  twa-handed  sword  (which  commonly  was  carried 
'  with  the  said  Maister  George)  be  taken,  from  the  said  John 
'  Knox,  who,  albeit  unwillingly,  obeyed,  and  returned  with 
*  Hew  Douglas  to  Languid  dry,' — never  to  see  his  face  more. 
6  Maister  George,  having  to  accompany  him,  the  Laird  of  Or- 
'  meston,  John  Sandilands  of  Gaidar  younger  '  (Ancestor  of  the 
now  Lords  Torphicheri)  '  the  Laird  of  Brounstoun  and  others, 
i  with  their  servants,  passed  upon  foot  (for  it  was  a  vehement 
4  frost)  (;o  Ormeston.' 

In  a  couple  of  hours  after,  Bothwell,  with  an  armed  party, 
surrounded  Ormeston  ;  got  Wishart  delivered  to  him,  upon 
solemn  pledge  of  his  oath  and  of  his  honour  that  no  harm 
should  be  done  him  ;  and  that  if  the  Cardinal  should  threaten 
any  harm  against  Wishart,  he,  Bothwell,  would  with  his  whole 
strength  and  of  his  own  power  redeliver  him  safe  in  this 
place.  Whereupon,  without  battle  or  struggle,  he  was  per- 
mitted to  depart  with  Wishart ;  delivered  him  straightway  to 
the  Cardinal, — who  was  expressly  waiting  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  at  once  rolled  off  with  him  to  Edinburgh  Castle, 
soon  after  to  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews  (to  the  grim  old  ou- 
bliette dla  Louis  XL,  still  visible  there)  ;  and,  in  a  month  more, 
to  death  by  the  gallows  and  by  fire.  This  was  one  of  the  first 
still  conspicuous  foul  deeds  of  Patrick  Hepburn,  Earl  of  Both- 
well,  in  this  world,  who  in  his  time  did  so  many.  The  memory 
of  all  this  had  naturally  in  Knox's  mind  a  high  and  mournful 
beauty  all  the  rest  of  his  life.    Wishart  came  to  St.  Andrews 

1  Works  of  Knox,  i  pp.  lo?-8. 

3 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


in  the  end  of  January,  1546,  and  was  mercilessly  put  to  death 
there  on  the  first  of  March  following. 

Connected  unexpectedly  with  the  tragic  end  of  Wishart, 
and  in  singular  contrast  to  it,  here  is  another  except,  illus- 
trating another  side  of  Knox's  mind.  It  describes  a  fight  be- 
tween the  Crozier-bearers  of  Dunbar,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
and  of  Cardinal  Beaton. 

1  The  Cardinal  was  known  proud  ;  and  Duinbar,  Archbishop 
c  of  Glasgow,  was  known  a  glorious  fool ;  and  yet  because 
'  sometimes  he  was  called  the  King's  Maister  5  (had  been  tutor 
to  James  V.),  'he  was  chancellor  of  Scotland.  The  cardinal 
'  comes  even  this  same  year,  in  the  end  of  harvest,  to  Glas- 
*  gow  ;  upon  what  purpose  we  omit.  But  while  they  remain 
'  together,  the  one  in  the  town,  and  the  other  in  the  Castle, 
'  question  rises  for  bearing  of  their  croces  '  (croziers),  1  The 
6  Cardinal  alleged,  by  reason  of  his  Cardinalship,  and  that  he 
6  was  Legatus  Xatus  and  Primate  within  Scotland  in  the  King* 
6  dom  of  Antichrist,  that  he  should  have  the  pre-eminence,  and 
1  that  his  croce  should  not  only  go  before,  but  that,  also,  it 
'  should  only  be  borne  wheresoever  he  was.  Good  Gukstoun 
'  Glaikstour '  (Gowkston  JIadster)  ;  the  foresaid  Archbishop, 
'  lacked  no  reasons,  as  he  thought,  for  maintenance  of  his 
6  glorie  :  He  was  ane  Archbishop  in  his  own  diocese,  and  in  his 
1  awn  Cathedral  seat  and  Church,  and  therefore  aught  to  give 
1  place  to  no  man  :  the  power  of  the  Cardinal  was  but  begged 
£  from  Borne,  and  appertained  but  to  his  own  person,  and  not 
'  to  his  bishoprick  ;  for  it  might  be  that  his  successor  should 
6  not  be  Cardinal.  But  his  dignity  was  annexed  with  his  of- 
'  fice,  and  did  appertain  to  all  that  ever  should  be  Bishops  of 
1  Glasgow.  Howsoever  these  doubts  were  resolved  by  the 
'  doctors  of  divinity  of  both  the  Prelates,  yet  the  decision  was 
1  as  ye  shall  hear.  Coming  forth  (or  going  in,  all  is  one)  at 
1  the  queir-door'  (choir-door)  '  of  Glasgow  Kirk  begins  a  striv- 
'  ing  for  state  betwixt  the  two  croce-bearers,  so  that  from 
'  glooming  they  come  to  shouldering  ;  from  shouldering  they 
'  go  to  buffets,  and  from  dry  blaws  to  nefiis  and  nefIelling, 
(fists  and  fist  cuffing)  ;  £  and  then  for  charity's  sake  they  cry 
6  Dispersitj  dedti  pauperibus  ;  and  assay  which  of  the  croces 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


85 


'  was  finest  metal,  which,  staff  was  strongest,  and  which  bearer 
£  could  best  defend  his  maister's  pre-eminence,  and  that  there 
'  should  be  no  superiority  in  that  behalf,  to  the  ground  goes 
'  both  the  croces.  And  then  began  no  little  fray,  but  yet  a 
£  merry  game  ;  for  rockets '  (rochets)  '  were  rent,  tippets  were 
£  torn,  crowns  were  knapped '  (cracked),  £  and  side  '  (long) 
£  gowns  micht  have  been  seen  wantonly  wag  from  the  one 
6  wall  to  the  other. — Many  of  them  lacked  beards,  and  that 
c  was  the  more  pity  ;  and  therefore  could  not  buckle  other ' 
(each  other)  '  by  the  byrse  '  (bristles, — hair  or  beard),  '  as  bold 
men  would  have  done.  But  fy  on  the  jackmen  that  did  not 
6  their  duty  ;  for  had  the  one  part  of  them  rencountered  the 
'  other,  then  had  all  gone  richt.  But  the  sanctuary,  we  sup- 
'  pose,  saved  the  lives  of  many.  How  merilie  soever  this  be 
£  written,  it  was  bitter  bourding '  (mirth)  '  to  the  Cardinal 
'  and  his  court.  It  was  more  than  irregularity  ;  yea,  it  micht 
£  weel  have  been  judged  lease-majesty  to  the  son  of  perdition, 
£  the  Pape's  awn  person  ;  and  yet  the  other  in  his  folly,  as 
'  proud  as  a  pacock,  would  let  the  Cardinal  know  that  he  was 

*  Bishop  when  the  other  was  but  Beaton  before  he  gat  Abir- 

*  brothok '  (Abbacy  of  Arbroath  in  1523,  twenty-two  years  ago 
from  his  uncle, — uncle  retaining  half  of  the  revenues).1 

This  happened  on  the  4th  June,  1545  ;  and  seemed  to  have 
planted  perpetual  enmity  between  these  two  Church  dignita- 
ries ;  and  yet,  before  the  end  of  February  following, — Pope's* 
Legate  Beaton  being  in  immediate  need  of  Eight  Bevd.  Gowk- 
ston's  signature  for  the  burning  of  martyr  Wishart  at  St.  An- 
drews, these  two  servants  of  his  Infernal  Majesty  were  brought 
to  a  cordial  reconcilement  and  brotherhood  in  doing  their 
father's  will ;  no  less  a  miracle,  says  Knox,  than  £  took  place 
£  at  the  accusation  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  when  Pilate  and 
6  Herod,  who  before  were  enemies,  were  made  friends  by  con- 
'  senting  of  them  both  to  Christ's  condemnation  ;  sole  distinc- 
6  tion  being  that  Pilate  and  Herod  were  brethren  in  the  estate 
'  called  Temporal,  and  these  two,  of  whom  we  now  speak, 

*  were  brethren  (sons  of  the  same  father,  the  Devil)  in  the 
8  Estate  Ecclesiastical.' 

1  Works  of  Knox,  i.  pp.  145-7. 


36 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


It  was,  as  we  said,  on  the  1st  March,  1546,  that  the  noble 
and  gentle  Wishart  met  his  death  ;  in  the  last  days  of  Febru- 
ary that  Archbishop  Gowkston  reconciled  himself  to  co-operate 
with  Pilate  Beaton  Legatees  Natus  .—three  months  hence  that 
the  said  Pilate  Beaton,  amazing  Hinge  of  the  Church,  was 
stolen  in  upon  in  his  now  well-nigh  impregnable  castle  of  St. 
Andrews,  and  met  his  stern  quietus.  "I  am  a  priest,  I  am  a 
priest :  fy,  fy  :  all  is  gone  !  "  were  the  last  words  he  spoke. 
Knox's  narrative  of  all  this  is  of  a  most  perfect  historical  per- 
spicuity and  business-like  brevity  ;  and  omitting  no  particular, 
neither  that  of  buxom  'Marion  Ogilvy '  and  her  peculiar  ser-* 
vices,  nor  that  of  Melvin,  the  final  swordsman,  who  'stroke 
'  him  twyse  or  thrise  through  with  a  stog-sweard/  after  his 
notable  rebuke  to  Lesley  and  him  for  their  unseemly  choler. 1 
He  carefully  abstains  from  any  hint  of  criticism  pro  or  contra 
on  the  grim  transaction  ;  though  one  sees  evidently  that  the 
inward  feeling  was  that  of  deliverance  from  a  hideous  night- 
mare, pressing  on  the  soul  of  Knox  and  the  eternal  interests 
of  Scotland. 

Knox  individually  had  not  the  least  concern  with  this  affair 
of  Beaton,  nor  for  eight  or  ten  months  more  did  he  personally 
come  in  contact  with  it  at  all.  But  ever  since  the  capture  of 
Wishart  the  position  of  Knox  at  Languid  dry  had  become  in- 
secure ;  and  on  rumour  after  rumour  of  peril  approaching,  he 
had  been  forced  to  wander  about  from  one  covert  to  another 
with  his  three  pupils ;  till  at  length  their  two  fathers  had 
agreed  that  he  should  go  with  them  to  the  castle  of  St.  An- 
drews, literally  at  that  time  the  one  sure  refuge  ;  siege  of  it 
by  poor  Arran,  or  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault,  as  he  afterwards 
became,  evidently  languishing  away  into  utter  futility;  and 
the  place  itself  being,  what  the  late  Cardinal  fancied  he  had 
made  it,  impregnable  to  any  Scottish  force.  He  arrived  there 
with  his  pupils  10th  April,  1547  ;  and  was  before  long,  against 
his  will  or  expectation,  drawn  into  a  height  of  notability  in 
public  affairs,  from  which  he  never  rested  more  while  his  life 
lasted,— two  and  twenty  years  of  such  labours  and  perils  as 


1  Knox's  Work's,  i.  pp.  174-7. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


37 


no  oilier  Scottish  man  went  through  in  that  epoch,  till  death 
set  him  free. 

Beaton's  body  was  already  for  the  last  nine  or  ten  months 
lying  salted  in  the  sea-tower  oubliette,  waiting  some  kind  of 
Christian  burial.  The  '  Siege '  had  dwindled  into  plain  im- 
potency  of  loose  blockade,  and  even  to  pretence  of  treaty  on 
the  Regent's  part.  Knox  and  his  pupils  were  in  safety  in 
castle  and  town  ;  and  Knox  tells  us  that  he  began  to  exercise 
'  them '  (his  pupils)  6  after  his  accustomed  manner.  Besides 
£  grammar,  and  other  humane  authors,  he  read  unto  them  a 
£  catechism,  account  whereof  he  caused  them  give  publicly  in 
£  the  parish  Kirk  of  St.  Andrews.  He  read  moreover  unto 
£  them  the  Evangel  of  John,  proceeding  where  he  left  at  his 
£  departing  from  Langniddry,  where  before  his  residence  was  ; 
£  and  that  Lecture  he  read  in  the  chapel  within  the  castle  at 
c  a  certain  hour.  They  of  the  place,  but  especially  Maister 
£  Henry  Balnaves  and  John  Bough,  preacher,  perceiving  the 
£  manner  of  his  doctrine,  began  earnestly  to  travail  with  him 
c  that  he  would  take  the  preaching  place  upon  him.  But  he 
'utterly  refused,  alleging  ''That  he  would  not  ryne  where 
£  God  had  not  called  him  ;  "  meaning  that  he  would  do  nothing 
£  without  a  lawful  vocation. 

£  Whereupon  they  privily  among  themselves  advising,  hav- 
c  ing  with  them  in  council  Sir  David  Lindsay  of  the  Mount, 

*  they  concluded  that  they  would  give  a  charge  to  the  said 
'  John,  and  that  publicly  by  mouth  of  their  preacher.'  Which 
accordingly  with  all  solemnity  was  done  by  the  said  Bough, 
after  an  express  sermon  on  the  Election  of  Ministers,  and 
what  power  lay  in  the  call  of  the  congregation,  how  small 
soever,  upon  any  man  discerned  by  them  to  have  in  him  the 
gifts  of  God.  John  Bough  '  directed  his  words  to  the  said 
4  John,  charging  him  to  refuse  not  the  holy  vocation  of  preach- 
e  ing,  even  as  he  hoped  to  avoid  God's  heavy  displeasure  ;  and, 
£  turning  to  the  congregation,  asked  them,  "Was  not  this 

*  your  charge  to  me  ?  and  do  ye  not  approve  this  vocation  ?  " 
6  They  answered,  "It  was  ;  and  we  approve  it."  Whereat  the 
'  said  John,  abashed,  burst  forth  in  most  abundant  tears,  and 
'  withdrew  himself  to  his  chamber.    His  countenance  and 


38  THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KFOX. 


6  behaviour,  from  that  day  till  the  day  that  he  was  compelled 
6  to  present  himself  to  the  public  place  of  preaching,  did 
£  sufficiently  declare  the  grief  and  trouble  of  his  heart ;  for  no 
e  man  saw  any  sign  of  mirth  in  him,  neither  yet  had  he 
6  pleasure  to  accompany  any  man,  many  days  together.' 

In  its  rude  simplicity,  this  surely  is  a  notable  passage  in 
the  history  of  such  a  man,  and  has  a  high  and  noble  meaning 
in  it. 

About  two  months  after  Knox's  being  called  to  the  ministry 
in  this  manner,  a  French  fleet,  £  with  an  army  the  like  where- 
'  of  was  never  seen  in  that  firth  before,  came  within  sight  of 
£  St.  Andrews,' — likely  to  make  short  work  of  the  Castle  there  ! 
To  the,  no  doubt,  great  relief  of  Arran  and  the  Queen  Dow- 
ager, who  all  this  while  had  been  much  troubled  by  cries  and 
complaints  from  the  Priests  and  Bishops.  After  some  clays 
of  siege, — '  the  pest  within  the  castle,'  says  Knox,  '  alarming 
£  some  more  than  the  French  force  without,'  and  none  of  the 
expected  help  from  England  arriving,  the  besieged,  on  the 
31st  July,  1547,  surrendered  St.  Andrews  Castle  :  prisoners 
to  France,  high  and  low,  but  with  shining  promises  of  free- 
dom and  good  treatment  there,  which  promises,  however, 
were  not  kept  by  the  French ;  for  on  reaching  Eouen,  '  the 
£  principal  gentlemen,  who  looked  for  freedom,  were  dispersed 
6  and  put  in  sundry  prisons.  The  rest '  (Knox  among  them) 
£  were  left  in  the  gallies,  and  there  miserable  entreated.' 

There  are  two  luminous  little  incidents  connected  with  this 
grim  time,  memorable  to  all.  Knox  describes,  and  also,  it  is 
not  doubted,  is  the  hero  of  the  scene  which  follows  : 

'  These  that  were  in  the  gallies  were  threatened  with  tor- 
'  ments,  if  they  would  not  give  reverence  to  the  Mass  (for  at 
£  certain  times  the  Mass  was  said  in  the  galley,  or  else  heard 
£  upon  the  shore,  in  presence  of  the  forsaris '  (formats)  ;  '  but 
£  they  could  never  make  the  poorest  of  that  _  company  to  give 
£  reverence  to  that  idol.  Yea,  when  upon  the  Saturday  at 
c  night  they  sang  their  Salve  Regina,  the  whole  Scottishmen 
£  put  on  their  caps,  their  hoods,  or  such  things  as  they  had 
'  to  cover  their  heads  ;  and  when  that  others  were  compelled 
£  to  kiss  a  paynted  brod  '  (board,  bit  of  wood),  '  which  they  call 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX.  39 


'  Nostre  Dame,  they  were  not  pressed  after  once  ;  for  this 
c  was  the  chance.  Soon  after  the  arrival  at  Nances '  (Nantes) 
'  their  great  Salve  was  sung,  and  a  glorious  paynted  Lady  was 
'  brought  in  to  be  kissed,  and,  among  others,  was  presented 
'  to  one  of  the  Scottishmen  then  chained.  He  gently  said, 
'  "  Trouble  me  not,  such  aneidole  is  accursed  ;  and  therefore 
'  I  will  not  touch  it."  The  Patron  and  the  Arguesyn  3  (Ar- 
c  r/ousin,  Serjeant  who  commands  the  for  cats),  6  with  two  of- 
'  fleers,  having  the  chief  charge  of  all  such  matters,  said, 
•  "  Thou  shalt  handle  it ;  "  and  so  they  violently  thrust  it  to 
6  his  face,  and  put  it  betwixt  his  hands  ;  who,  seeing  the  ex- 
6  tremity,  took  the  idol,  and,  advisedly  looking  about,  cast  it 
'  in  the  river,  and  said,  "  Let  our  Lady  saif  herself ;  she  is 
£  licht  aneuch  ;  let  her  learn  to  swim."  After  that  was  no 
'  Scottish  man  urged  with  that  idolatry.'  1 

"Within  year  and  day  the  French  galleys, — Knox  still  chained 
in  them, — reappeared  in  St.  Andrews  Bay,  part  of  a  mighty 
French  fleet,  with  6,000  hardy,  experienced  French  soldiers, 
and  their  necessary  stores  and  furnitures, — come  with  full 
purpose  to  repair  the  damages  Protector  Somerset  had  done 
by  Pinky  Battle,  and  to  pack  the  English  well  home  ;  and, 
indeed,  privately,  to  secure  Scotland  for  themselves  and  their 
Guises,  and  keep  it  as  an  open  French  road  into  En  gland 
thenceforth.  They  first  tried  Broughty  Castle  with  a  few 
shots,  where  the  English  had  left  a  garrison,  which  gave  them 
due  return  ;  but  without  farther  result  there.  Knox's  galley 
seems  to  have  been  lying  not  far  from  Broughty  ;  Knox  him- 
self, with  a  notable  £  Maister  James  Balfour '  close  by  him  ; 
utterly  foredone  in  body,  and  thought  by  his  comrades  to  be 
dying,  when  the  following  smEill  but  noteworthy  passage  oc- 
curred : 

'  The  said  Maister  James  and  John  Knox  being  intil  one 
'  galley,  and  being  wondrous  familiar  with  him  '  (Knox), 
'would  often  times  ask  his  judgment,  "If  he  thought  that 
e  ever  they  should  be  delivered  ?  "  "Whose  answer  was  ever, 
'  fra  the  day  that  they  entered  in  the  gallayis,  "That  God 
6  wald  deliver  them  from  that  bondage,  to  his  glorie,  even  in 
1  Works  of  Knox,  i.  p.  227. 


40 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


'  this  lyef."  And  lying  betwixt  Dundee  and  St.  Andrews, 
c  the  second  time  that  the  gallayis  returned  to  Scotland,  the 
'  said  John  being  so  extremely  seak '  (sick)  £  that  few  hoped 
'  his  life,  the  said  Maister  James  willed  him  to  look  to  the 
'  land,  and  asked  if  he  knew  it  ?  Who  answered,  "  Yes :  I 
'  knaw  it  weel  ;  for  I  see  the  stepiil  "  (steeple)  "  of  that  place 
'  where  God  first  in  public  opened  my  mouth  to  his  glorie, 
*  and  I  am  fully  persuaded,  how  weak  that  ever  I  now  appear, 
'  that  I  shall  not  depart  this  lyeff  till  that  my  tongue  shall 
c  glorine  his  godlie  name  in  the  same  place."  This  reported 
■  the  said  Maister  James,  in  presence  of  many  famous  witness, 
'  many  years  before  that  ever  the  said  John  set  futt  in  Scot- 
6  land  this  last  time  to  preache.' 

Knox  sat  nineteen  months,  chained,  as  a  galley  slave  in 
this  manner ;  or  else,  as  at  last  for  some  months,  locked  up 
in  the  prison  of  Rouen  ;  and  of  all  his  woes,  dispiritments, 
and  intolerabilities,  says  no  word  except  the  above  '  miserable 
entreated.'  But  it  seems  hope  shone  in  him  in  the  thickest 
darkness,  refusing  to  go  out  at  all.  The  remembrance  of 
which  private  fact  was  naturally  precious  and  priceless  all  the 
rest  of  his  life. 

The  actual  successes  of  these  6,000  veteran  French  were 
small  compared  with  their  expectations  ;  the  wreary  Siege  of 
Haddington,  where  Somerset  had  left  a  garrison,  not  very 
wisely  thought  military  critics,  they  had  endless  difficulties 
with,  and,  but  for  the  pest  among  the  poor  townsfolk  and 
garrison,  were  never  like  to  have  succeeded  in.  The  fleet,  how- 
ever stood  gloriously  out  to  sea  ;  and  carried  home  a  prize, 
they  themselves  might  reckon  next  to  inestimable, — the  royal 
little  Mary,  age  six,  crowned  five  years  ago  Queen  of  Scots, 
and  now  covenanted  to  wed  the  Dauphin  of  France,  and  be 
brought  up  in  that  country,  with  immense  advantage  to  the 
same.  They  steered  northward  by  the  Pentland  Firth,  then 
round  by  the  Hebrides  and  West  coast  of  Ireland,  prosper- 
ously through  the  summer  seas  *  and  by  about  the  end  of 
July,  1548,  their  jewel  of  a  child  was  safe  in  St,  Germain-en- 
Laye  :  the  brightest  and  bonniest  little  Maid  in  all  the  world, 
setting  out,  alas,  towards  the  blackest  destiny. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KJSTOX. 


41 


Most  of  this  winter  Knox  sat  in  the  prison  of  Kouen,  busy 
commentating,  prefacing,  and  trimming  out  a  Book  on  Pro- 
testant Theology,  by  his  friend  Balnaves  ;  and  anxiously  ex- 
pecting his  release  from  this  French  slavery,  which  hope,  by 
help  of  English  Ambassadors,  and  otherwise,  did  at  length, 
after  manifold  difficulties,  find  fulfilment. 

In  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  Knox,  Balnaves  of  Hallhill, 
Kirkcaldy  of  Grange,  and  the  other  exiles  of  St.  'Andrews, 
found  themselves  safe  in  England,  under  the  gracious  pro- 
tection of  King  Edward  VI.  ;  Knox  especially  under  that  of 
Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  naturally  at  once  discerned  in  him 
a  valuable  missionary  of  the  new  Evangelical  Doctrine  ;  and 
immediately  employed  him  to  that  end. 

Knox  remained  in  England  some  five  years  ;  he  was  first 
appointed,  doubtless  at  Cranmer's  instigation,  by  the  English 
Council,  Preacher  in  Berwick  and  neighbourhood  ;  thence, 
about  a  year  after,  in  Newcastle.  In  1551  he  was  made  one 
of  the  Six  Chaplains  to  Edward,  who  were  appointed  to  go 
about  all  over  England  spreading  abroad  the  reformed  faith, 
which  the  people  were  then  so  eager  to  hear  news  of.  His 
preaching  was,  by  the  serious  part  of  the  community,  received 
with  thankful  approbation  ;  and  he  had  made  warm  friends 
among  that  class  ;  and  naturally,  also,  given  offence  to  the 
lukewarm  or  half-and-half  Protestants  ;  especially  to  Tonstall, 
Bishop  of  Durham,  for  his  too  great  detestation  of  the  Mass. 
To  the  Council,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  he  rose  in 
value  ;  giving  always  to  them,  when  summoned  on  such  com- 
plaints, so  clear  and  candid  an  account  of  himself.  In  the 
third  year  of  his  abode  in  England,  1552,  he  was  offered  by 
them  the  Bishopric  of  Kochester  ;  but  declined,  and,  soon  after, 
the  living  of  Allhallows,  Bread  Street,  London,  which  also  he 
declined.  On  each  of  these  occasions  he  was  again  summoned 
by  the  King's  Council  to  give  his  reasons  ;  and  again  gave 
them, — Church  in  England  not  yet  sufficiently  reformed  ;  too 
much  of  vestments  and  of  other  Popish  fooleries  remaining  ; 
bishops  or  pastors  without  the  due  power  to  correct  their 
flock  which  every  pastor  ought  to  have  ; — was  again  dismissed 
by  the  Council,  without  censure,  to  continue  in  his  former 


42 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


employment,  where,  he  said,  his  persuasion  was  that  he  could 
be  more  useful  than  preaching  in  London  or  presiding  at 
Rochester. 

Knox  many  times  lovingly  celebrates  the  young  Protes- 
tant King,  and  almost  venerates  him,  as  one  clearly  sent  of 
God  for  the  benefit  of  these  realms,  and  of  all  good  men 
there  ;  regarding  his  early  death  as  a  heavy  punishment 
for  the  sins  of  the  people.  It  was  on  the  6th  July,  1553,  that 
Edward  died  ;  and  in  the  course  of  that  same  year  Knox  with 
many  other  Protestants,  clergy  and  laity,  had  to  leave  Eng- 
land, to  avoid  the  too  evident  intentions  of  Bloody  Mary,  so 
soon  culminating  in  her  fires  of  Smithfield  and  marriage  with 
Philip  II.  Knox  seems  to  have  lingered  to  the  very  last ;  his 
friends,  he  says,  had  to  beseech  him  with  tears,  almost  to 
force  him  away.  He  was  leaving  many  that  were  dear  to  him, 
and  to  whom  he  was  dear  ;  among  others  Marjory  Bowes,  who 
(by  the  earnest  resolution  of  her  mother)  was  now  betrothed 
to  him  ;  and  his  ulterior  course  was  as  dark  and  desolate  as 
it  could  well  be.  From  Dieppe,  where  he  first  landed  on 
crossing  the  Channel,  he  writes  much  of  his  heart-felt  grief  at 
the  dismal  condition  of  affairs  in  England,  truly  more  afflict- 
ing than  that  of  native  Scotland  itself ;  and  adds  on  one  oc- 
casion, with  a  kind  of  sparkle  of  disdain,  in  reference  to  his 
own  poor  wants  and  troubles  : 

'  I  will  not  mak  you  privy  how  rich  I  am,  but  off'  [from) 
6  London  I  departit  with  less  money  than  ten  groats ;  but 
'  God  has  since  provided,  and  will  provide,  I  doubt  not,  here- 
6  after  abundantly  for  this  life.  Either  the  Queen's  Majesty  ' 
(of  England)  '  or  some  Treasurer  will  be  XL  pounds  richer  by 
'  me,  for  so  meikle  lack  I  of  duty  of  my  patents  '  (years  salary 
as  Royal  Chaplain).    'But  that  little  troubles  me.' 

From  Dieppe,  in  about  a  month,  poor  Knox  wandered 
forth  to  look  into  the  churches  of  Switzerland, — French  Hu- 
guenots, Good  Samaritans,  it  is  like,  lodging  and  furthering 
him  through  France.  He  was,  for  about  five  months, 
Preacher  at  Frankfort-on-Mayn,  to  a  Church  of  English 
Exiles  there  ;  from  which,  by  the  violence  of  certain  intru- 
sive High-Church  parties,  as  we  may  style  them,  met  by  a 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


43 


great  and  unexpected  patience  on  the  part  of  Knox,  he  felt 
constrained  to  depart, — followed  by  the  less  ritual  portion- of 
his  auditory.  He  reached  Geneva  (April,  1555)  ;  and,  by  aid 
of  Calvin  and  the  general  willing  mind  . of  the  city  magistrates, 
there  was  a  spacious  (quondam  Papist)  Church  conceded 
him  ;  where  for  about  three  years,  not  continuous,  but  twice 
or  oftener  interrupted  by  journeys  to  Dieppe,  and  almost  one 
whole  year  by  a  visit  to  Scotland,  he,  loyally  aided  by  one 
Goodman,  an  English  colleague  or  assistant,  preached  and  ad- 
ministered to  his  pious  and  otherwise  forlorn  Exiles,  greatly 
to  their  comfort,  as  is  still  evident.  In  Scotland  (November, 
1555 — July,  1556)  he  laboured  incessantly,  kindling  the  gen- 
eral Protestant  mind  into  new  zeal  and  new  clearness  of  re- 
solve for  action  when  the  time  should  come.  He  had  many 
private  conferences  in  Edinburgh  ;  much  preaching,  publicly 
in  various  towns,  oftener  privately  in  well-affected  mansions 
of  the  aristocracy  ;  and  saw  plainly  the  incipient  filaments  of 
what  by  and  by  became  so  famous  and  so  all-important  as  the 
National  'Covenant'  and  its  4  Lords  of  the  Congregation.' 
His  Marjory  Bowes,  in  the  meanwhile,  he  had  wedded.  Mar- 
jory's pious  mother  and  self  were  to  be  with  him  henceforth, 
— over  seas  at  Geneva,  first  of  all.  For  summons,  in  an  ear- 
nest and  even  solemn  tone,  coming  to  him  from  his  congrega- 
tion there,  he  at  once  prepared  to  return ;  quitted  Scotland, 
he  and  his ;  leaving  promise  with  his  future  Lords  of  the 
Congregation  that  on  the  instant  of  signal  from  them  he 
would  reappear  there. 

In  1557  the  Scotch  Protestant  Lords  did  give  sign  ;  upon 
which  Knox,  with  sorrowing  but  hopeful  heart,  took  leave  of 
his  congregation  at  Geneva  ;  but  was  met  at  Dieppe  by  con- 
trary message  from  Scotland,  to  his  sore  grief  and  disappoint- 
ment. As  Mr.  Laing  calculates,  he  occupied  his  forced  leisure 
there  by  writing  his  widely  offensive  First  Blast  against  the 
monstrous  Regiment  of  Women, — of  which  strange  book  a  word 
farther  presently.  Having  blown  this  wild  First  Blast,  and 
still  getting  negatory  answers  out  of  Scotland,  he  returned  to 
Geneva  and  his  own  poor  church  there  ;  and  did  not  till  Janu- 
.ary,-1559,  on  brighter  Scotch  tidings  coming,  quit  that  city,— 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


straight  for  Scotland  this  time,  the  tug  of  war  now  actually 
come.  For  the  quarrel  only  a  few  days  after  Knox's  arrival 
blazed  out  into  open  conflagration  at  St.  Johnston's  (hodie 
Perth),  with  the  open  fall  of  Dagon  and  his  temples  there  i 
and  no  peace  was  possible  henceforth  till  either  Mary  of  Guise 
and  her  Papist  soldieries  left  Scotland  or  Christ's  Congregation 
and  their  cause  did.  In  about  two  years  or  less,  after  mani- 
fold vicissitudes,  it  turned  out  that  it  was  not  Knox  and  his 
cause,  but  Queen  Regent  Mary  and  hers  that  had  to  go. 
After  this  Knox  had  at  least  no  more  wanderings  and  jour- 
neyings  abroad  '  in  sore  trouble  of  heart,  whither  God  know- 
eth  ; '  though  for  the  twelve  years  that  remained,  there  was  at 
home  abundant  labour  and  trouble,  till  death  in  1572  de- 
livered him. 

With  regard  to  his  First  Blast  against  the  monstrous  Regi- 
ment of  Women  (to  which  there  never  was  any  Second^  though 
that  and  even  a  Third  were  confidently  purposed  by  its  au- 
thor), it  may  certainly  be  called  the  least  6  successful '  of  all 
Knox's  writings.  Offence,  and  that  only,  was  what  it  gave  to 
liis  silent  friends,  much  more  to  his  loudly  condemnatory  ene- 
mies, on  its  first  appearance  ;  and  often  enough  afterwards  it 
re-emerged  upon  him  as  a  serious  obstacle  in  his  affairs, — wit- 
ness Queen  Elizabeth,  mainstay  of  the  Scottish  Reformation 
itself,  who  never  could  forgive  him  for  that  Blast.  And 
now,  beyond  all  other  writings  of  Knox,  it  is  fallen  obsolete 
both  in  manner  and  in  purport  to  every  modern  mind.  Un- 
fortunately, too,  for  any  literary  reputation  Knox  may  have 
in  this  end  of  the  Island,  it  is  written  not  in  the  Scottish,  but 
in  the  common  English  dialect ;  completely  intelligible  there- 
fore to  everybody  :  read  by  many  in  that  time  ;  and  still  like- 
liest to  be  the  book  any  English  critic  of  Knox  will  have  looked 
into,  as  his  chief  original  document  about  the  man.  It  is  writ- 
ten with  very  great  vehemency  ;  the  excuse  for  which,  so  far 
as  it  may  really  need  excuse,  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  written  while  the  fires  of  Smithfield  were  still  blazing,  on 
hest  of  Bloody  Mary,  and  not  long  after  Mary  of  Guise  had 
been  raised  to  the  Regency  of  Scotland  :  maleficent  Crowned 
Women  these  two,  covering  poor  England  and  poor  Scotland 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


45 


with  mere  ruin  and  horror,  in  Knox's  judgment, — and  may 
we  not  still  say  to  a  considerable  extent  in  that  of  all  candid 
persons  since  ?  The  Book  is  by  no  means  without  merit ;  has 
in  it  various  little  traits,  unconsciously  autobiographic  and 
other,  which  are  illuminative  and  interesting.  One  ought  to 
add  withal  that  Knox  was  no  despiser  of  women  ;  far  the  re- 
verse, in  fact ;  his  behaviour  to  good  and  pious  women  is  full 
of  respect,  and  his  tenderness,  his  patient  helpfulness  in  their 
sufferings  and  infirmities  (see  the  Letters  to  his  Mother-in-law 
and  others)  are  beautifully  conspicuous.  For  the  rest  his 
poor  Book  testifies  to  many  high  intellectual  qualities  in  Knox, 
and  especially  to  far  more  of  learning  than  has  ever  been  as- 
cribed to  him,  or  is  anywhere  traceable  in  his  other  writings. 
He  proves  his  doctrine-  by  extensive  and  various  reference, — 
to  Aristotle,  Justin,  Pandects,  Digest,  Tertullian,  Ambrose, 
Augustin,  Chrysostom,  Basil :  there,  and  nowhere  else  in  his 
books,  have  we  direct  proof  how  studiously  and  profitably  his 
early  years,  up  to  the  age  of  forty,  must  have  been  spent.  A 
man  of  much  varied,  diligent,  and  solid  reading  and  inquiry, 
as  we  find  him  here  ;  a  man  of  serious  and  continual  medita- 
tion we  might  already  have  known  him  to  be.  By  his  sterling 
veracity,  not  of  word  only,  but  of  mind  and  of  character,  by 
his  sharpness  of  intellectual  discernment,  his  power  of  ex- 
pression, and  above  all  by  his  depth  of  conviction  and  honest 
burning  zeal,  one  first  clearly  judges  what  a  preacher  to  the 
then  earnest  populations  in  Scotland  and  England,  thirsting 
for  right  knowledge,  this  Knox  must  have  been. 

It  may  surprise  many  a  reader  if  we  designate  John  Knox 
as  a  '  Man  of  Genius  : '  and  truly  it  was  not  with  what  we  call 
'Literature,'  and  its  harmonies  and  symmetries,  addressed  to 
man's  Imagination,  that  Knox  was  ever  for  an  hour  concerned  ; 
but  with  practical  truths  alone,  addressed  to  man's  inmost 
Belief,  with  immutable  Facts,  accepted  by  him,  if  he  is  of 
loyal  heart,  as  the  daily  voices  of  the  Eternal, — even  such  in 
all  degrees  of  them.  It  is,  therefore,  a  still  higher  title  than 
'  Man  of  Genius  '  that  will  belong  to  Knox  ;  that  of  a  heaven- 
inspired  seer  and  heroic  leader  of  men.  But  by  whatever 
name  we  call  it,  Knox's  spiritual  endowment  is  of  the  most 


46 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


distinguished  class  ;  intrinsically  capable  of  whatever  is  noblest 
in  literature  and  in  far  higher  things.  His  Books,  especially 
his  History  of  the  Reformation,  if  well  read,  which  unfortu- 
nately is  not  possible  for  every  one,  and  has  grave  preliminary 
difficulties  for  even  a  Scottish  reader,  still  more  for  an  English 
one,  testify  in  parts  of  them  to  the  finest  qualities  that  belong 
to  a  human  intellect  ;  still  more  evidently  to  those  of  the  moral, 
Emotional,  or  sympathetic  sort,  or  that  concern  the  religious 
side  of  man's  soul.  It  is  really  a  loss  to  English  and  even  to 
universal  literature  that  Knox's  hasty  and  strangely  interest-, 
ing,  impressive,  and  peculiar  Book,  called  the  History  of  the 
Reformation  in  Scotland,  has  not  been  rendered  far  more  exten- 
sively legible  to  serious  mankind  at  large  than  is  hitherto  the 
case. 

There  is  in  it,  when  you  do  get  mastery  of  the  chaotic  de- 
tails and  adherences,  perpetually  distracting-  your  attention 
from  the  main  current  of  the  Work,  and  are  able  to  read  that, 
and  leave  the  mountains  of  annotation  victoriously  cut  off,  a 
really  singular  degree  of  clearness,  sharp  just  insight  and  per- 
spicacity, now  and  then  of  picturesqueness  and  visuality,  as  if 
the  thing  were  set  before  your  eyes  ;  and  everywhere  a  feel- 
ing of  the  most  perfect  credibility  and  veracity  :  that  is  to  say 
altogether,  of  Knox's  high  qualities  as  an  observer  and  narra- 
tor. His  account  of  every  event  he  was  present  in  is  that  of 
a  well-discerning  eye-witness.  Things  he  did  not  himself  see, 
but  had  reasonable  cause  and  abundant  means  to  inquire  into, 
— battles  even  and  sieges  are  described  with  something  of  a 
Homeric  vigour  and  simplicity.  This  man,  }tou  can  discern, 
has  seized  the  essential  elements  of  the  phenomenon,  and  done 
a  right  portrait  of  it ;  a  man  with  an  actually  seeing  eye.  The 
battle  of  Pinkie,  for  instance,  nowhere  do  you  gain,  in  few 
words  or  in  many,  a  clearer  view  of  it :  the  battle  of  Carberry 
Hill,  not  properly  a  fight,  but  a  whole  day's  waiting  under 
mutual  menace  to  fight,  which  winds  up  the  controversy  of 
poor  Mary  with  her  Scottish  subjects,  and  cuts  off  her  ruffian 
monster  of  a  Bothwell,  and  all  the  monstrosities  cleaving  to 
him,  forever  from  her  eyes,  is  given  with  a  like  impressive 
perspicuity. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


47 


The  affair  of  Cupar  Muir,  which  also  is  not  a  battle,  but  a 
more  or  less  unexpected  meeting  on  the  ground  for  mortal 
duel, — especially  unexpected  on  the  Queen  Regent  and  her 
Frenchmen's  part, — remains  memorable,  as  a  thing  one  had 
seen,  to  every  reader  of  Knox.  Not  itself  a  fight,  but  the  pro- 
logue or  foreshadow  of  all  the  fighting  that  followed.  The 
Queen  Regent  and  her  Frenchmen  had  marched  in  triumph- 
ant humour  out  of  Falkland,  with  their  artillery  ahead,  soon 
after  midnight,  trusting  to  find  at  St.  Andrews  the  two  chief 
Lords  of  the  Congregation,  the  Earl  of  Argyle  and  Lord 
James  (afterwards  Regent  Murray),  with  scarcely  a  hundred 
men  about  them, — found  suddenly  that  the  hundred  men,  by 
good  industry  overnight,  had  risen  to  an  army ;  and  that  the 
Congregation  itself,  under  these  two  Lords,  was  here,  skilfully 
posted,  and  ready  for  battle  either  in  the  way  of  cannon  or  of 
spear.  Sudden  halt  of  the  triumphant  Falklanders  in  conse- 
quence ;  and  after  that,  a  multifarious  manoeuvring,  circling, 
and  wheeling,  now  in  clear  light,  now  hidden  in  clouds  of 
mist ;  Scots  standing  steadfast  on  their  ground,  and  answer- 
ing message,  trumpets  in  an  inflexible  manner,  till,  after  many 
hours,  the  thing  had  to  end  in  an  c  appointment/  truce,  or 
offer  of  peace,  and  a  retreat  to  Falkland  of  the  Queen  Regent 
and  her  Frenchmen,  as  from  an  enterprise  unexpectedly  im- 
possible. All  this  is,  with  luminous  distinctness  and  business- 
like simplicity  and  brevity,  set  forth  by  Knox ;  who  hardly 
names  himself  at  all  ;  and  whose  personal  conduct  in  the 
affair  far  excels  in  merit  all  possible  merit  of  description  of 
it ;  this  being  probably  to  Knox  the  most  agitating  and  peri- 
lous of  all  the  days  of  his -life.  The  day  was  Monday,  11  June, 
1559  ;  yesterday,  Sunday  10th,  at  St.  Andrews,  whither  Knox 
had  hastened  on  summons,  he  preached  publicly  in  the  Kirk 
there,  mindful  of  his  prophecy  from  the  French  galleys  fifteen 
years  ago,  and  regardless  of  the  truculent  Hamilton,  Arch- 
bishop and  still  official  ruler  of  the  place  ;  who  had  informed 
him  the  night  before  that  if  he  should  presume  to  try  such  a 
thing,  he  (the  truculent  Archbishop)  would  have  him  saluted 
with  £  twelve  culverings,  the  most  part  of  which  would  land 
'upon  his  nose.'    The  fruit  of  which  sermon  had  been  the 


•is 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


sudden  flight  to  Falkland  overnight  of  Right  Reverend  Hamil- 
ton (who  is  here  again,  much  astonished,  on  Cupar  Muir  this 
day),  and  the  open  declaration  and  arming  of  St.  Andrews 
town  in  favour  of  Knox  and  his  cause. 

The  Queen  Regent,  as  was  her  wont,  only  half  kept  her  pa- 
cific treaty.  Herself  and  her  Frenchmen  did,  indeed,  retire 
wholly  to  the  south  side  of  the  Forth  ;  quitting  Fife  alto- 
gether ;  but  of  all  other  points  there  was  a  perfect  neglect. 
Her  garrison  refused  to  quit  Perth,  as  per  bargain,  and 
needed  a  blast  or  two  of  siege-artillery,  and  danger  of  speedy 
death,  before  they  would  withdraw;  and  a  shrewd  suspicion 
had  risen  that  she  wTould  seize  Stirling  again,  and  keep  the 
way  open  to  return.  This  last  concern  wras  of  prime  impor- 
tance ;  and  all  the  more  pressing  as  the  forces  of  the  Congre- 
gation had  nearly  all  returned  home,  On  this  Stirling  affair 
there  is  a  small  anecdote,  not  yet  entirely  forgotten  ;  which 
rudely  symbolizes  the  spirit  of  the  population  at  that  epoch, 
and  is  worth  giving.  The  Ribbands  of  St.  Johnston  is  or  was 
its  popular  title.  Knox  makes  no  mention  of  it ;  but  we 
quote  from  The  Muse's  Threnodie,  or  rather  from  the  Annota- 
tions to  that  poor  doggrel,  which  are  by  James  Cant,  and  of 
known  authenticity. 

The  Earl  of  Argyle  and  the  Lord  James,  who  had  private 
intelligence  on  this  matter,  and  were  deeply  interested  in  it, 
but  without  force  of  their  own,  contrived  to  engage  three 
hundred  staunch  townsmen  of  Perth  to  march  with  them  to 
Stirling  on  a  given  night ;  and  do  the  affair  by  stroke  of  hand. 
The  three  hundred  ranked  themselves  accordingly  on  the  ap- 
pointed night  (one  of  the  last  of  June,  1559)  ;  and  so  fierce 
was  their  humour,  they  had  each,  instead  of  the  scarf  or  rib- 
band which  soldiers  then  wore  round  their  necks,  tied  an  ef- 
fective measure  of  rope,  mutely  intimating,  cIf  I  flinch  or  fal- 
'ter,  let  me  straightway  die  the  death  of  a  dog/  They  were 
three  hundred  these  staunch  Townsmen  when  they  marched 
out  of  Perth  ;  but  the  country  gathered  to  them  from  right 
and  from  left,  all  through  the  meek  twilight  of  the  summer 
night,  and  on  reaching  Stirling  they  were  five  thousand 
strong.    The  gates  of  Stirling  were  flung  wide  open,  theu 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


10 


strictly  barricaded  ;  and  the  French  marching  thitnex'ward 
out  of  Edinburgh,  had  to  wheel  right  about,  faster  than  they 
came  ;  and  in  fact  retreat  swiftly  to  Dunbar ;  and  there  wait 
reinforcement  from  beyond  seas.  This  of  the  three  hundred 
Perth  Townsmen  and  their  ropes  was  noised  of  with  clue 
plaudits  ;  and,  in  calmer  times,  a  rather  heavy-footed  joke 
arose  upon  it,  and  became  current ;  and  men  would  say  o.t 
such  and  such  a  scoundrel  worthy  of  the  gallows,  that  he  de- 
served a  St.  Johnston's  ribband.  About  a  hundred  years  agov 
James  Cant  used  to  see  in  the  Town-clerk's  office  at  Perth  an 
old  picture  of  the  March  of  these  three  hundred  with  the  ropes 
about  their  necks  ;  whether  there  still  I  have  no  account ;  but 
rather  guess  the  negative.1 

The  siege  of  Leith,  which  followed  hereupon,  in  all  its  de- 
tails,— especially  the  preface  to  it,  that  sudden  invasion  of  the 
Queen  Eegent  and  her  Frenchmen  from  Dunbar,  forcing 
Knox  and  his  Covenanted  Lqrds  to  take  refuge  in  the  '  Quar- 
rel Holes'  [quarry  holes),  on  the  eastern  flank  of  the  Carton 
Hill,  with  Salisbury  Crags  overhanging  it,  what  he  elsewhere 
calls  'the  Craigs  of  Edinburgh/  as  their  one  defensible  post 
against  their  French  enemies :  this  scene,  which  lasted  two 
nights  and  two  days,  till  once  the  French  struck  into  Leith, 
and  began  fortifying,  dwells  deeply  impressed  on  Knox's 
memory  and  feelings. 

Besides  this  perfect  clearness,  naivete,  and  almost  uninten- 
tional picturesqueri  ess,  there  are  to  be  found  in  Knox's  swift- 
flowing  History  many  other  kinds  of  'geniality,'  and  indeed 
of  far  higher  excellences  than  are  wont  to  be  included  under 
that  designation.  The  grand  Italian  Dante  is  not  more  in 
.  earnest  about  this  inscrutable  Immensity  than  Knox  is.  There 
is  in  Knox  throughout  the  spirit  of  an  old  Hebrew  Prophet, 
such  as  may  have  been  in  Moses  in  the  Desert  at  the  sight  of 
the  Burning  Bush  ;  spirit  almost  altogether  unique  among 
modern  men,  and  along  with  all  this,  in  singular  neighbour- 
hood to  it,  a  sympathy,  a  veiled  tenderness  of  heart,  veiled, 
but  deep  and  of  piercing  vehemence,  and  an  inward  gayety  of 

1  The  Muse's  Ihrenodie,  by  Mr.  H.  Adamson  (first  printed  in  1G38), 
edited,  with  annotations,  by  James  Cant  (Perth,  1774). 
4 


50 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


soul,  alive  to  the  ridicule  that  dwells  in  whatever  is  ridiculous  ; 
in  fact,  a  fine  vein  of  humour,  which  is  wanting  in  Dante. 

The  interviews  of  Knox  with  the  Queen  are  what  one  would 
most  like  to  produce  to  readers  ;  but  unfortunately  they  arb 
of  a  tone  which,  explain  as  we  might,  not  one  reader  in  a 
thousand  could  be  made  to  sympathize  with  or  do  justice  to 
in  behalf  of  Knox.  The  treatment  which  that  young,  beauti- 
ful, and  high  Chief  Personage  in  Scotland  receives  from  the 
rigorous  Knox,  would  to  most  modern  men  seem  irreverent, 
cruel,  almost  barbarous.  Here  more  than  elsewhere  Knox 
proves  himself, — here  more  than  anywhere  bound  to  do  it, — 
the  Hebrew  Prophet  in  complete  perfection  ;  refuses  to  soften 
any  expression  or  to  call  anything  by  its  milder  name,  or  in 
short  for  one  moment  to  forget  that  the  Eternal  God  and  His 
Word  are  great,  and  that  all  else  is  little,  or  is  nothing  ;  nay, 
if  it  set  itself  against  the  Most  High  and  His  Word,  is  the  one 
frightful  thing  that  this  world  exhibits. 

He  is  never  in  the  least  ill-tempered  with  Her  Majesty  ; 
but  she  cannot  move  him  from  that  fixed  centre  of  all  his 
thoughts  and  actions  :  Do  the  will  of  God,  and  tremble  at 
nothing :  do  against  the  will  of  God,  and  know  that,  in  the 
Immensity  and  the  Eternity  around  you,  there  is  nothing  but 
matter  of  terror.  Nothing  can  move  Knox  here  or  elsewhere 
from  that  standing-ground  ;  no  consideration  of  Queen's  scep- 
tres and  armies  and  authorities  of  men  is  of  any  efficacy  or 
dignity  whatever  in  comparison  ;  and  becomes  not  beautiful 
but  horrible,  when  it  sets  itself  against  the  Most  High. 

One  Mass  in  Scotland,  he  more  than  once  intimates,  is  more 
terrible  to  him  than  all  the  military  power  of  France,  or,  as 
he  expresses  it,  the  landing  of  ten  thousand  armed  men  in 
any  part  of  this  realm  would  be.  The  Mass  is  a  daring  and 
unspeakably  frightful  pretence  to  worship  God  by  methods 
not  of  God's  appointing  ;  open  idolatry  it  is,  in  Knox's  judg- 
ment ;  a  mere  invitation  and  invocation  to  the  wrath  of  God 
to  fall  upon  and  crush  you.  'To  a  common,  or  even  to  the 
most  gifted  and  tolerant  reader,  in  these  modern  careless 
days,  it  is  almost  altogether  impossible  to  sympathize  with 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


51 


Knox's  horror,  terror,  and  detestation  of  the  poor  old  Hocus- 
pocus  {Hoc  est  Corpus)  of  a  Mass  ;  but  to  every  candid  reader 
it  is  evident  that  Knox  was  under  no  mistake  about  it,  on  his 
own  ground,  and  that  this  is  verily  his  authentic  and  contin- 
ual feeling  on  the  matter. 

There  are  four  or  five  dialogues  of  Knox  with  the  Queen, 
— sometimes  in  her  own  Palace  at  her  own  request  ;  some- 
times by  summons  of  her  Council ;  but  in  all  these  she  is  sure 
to  come  off  not  with  victory,  but  the  reverse  ;  and  Knox  to  re- 
tire unmoved  from  any  j)oint  of  interest  to  him.  She  will  not 
come  to  public  sermon,  under  any  Protestant  (that  is,  for  her, 
Heretical)  Preacher.  Knox,  whom  she  invites  once  or  oftener 
to  come  privately  to  where  she  is,  and  remonstrate  with  her, 
if  he  find  her  offend  in  anything,  cannot  consent  to  run  into 
backstairs  of  Courts,  cannot  find  that  he  is  at  liberty  to  pay 
visits  in  that  direction,  or  to  consort  with  Princes  at  all.  Mary 
often  enough  bursts  into  tears,  oftener  than  once  into  passion- 
ate long-continued  fits  of  weeping, — Knox  standing  with  mild 
and  pitying  visage,  but  without  the  least  hairs-breadth  of  re- 
canting or  recoiling  ;  waiting  till  the  fit  pass,  and  then  with 
all  softness,  but  with  all  inexorability,  taking  up  his  theme 
again.  The  high  and  graceful  young  Queen,  we  can  well 
see,  had  not  met,  nor  did  meet,  in  this  world  with  such  a 
man. 

The  hardest-hearted  reader  cannot  but  be  affected  with 
some  pity,  or  think  with  other  than  softened  feelings  of  this 
ill-starred,  young,  beautiful,  graceful,  and  highly  gifted  hu- 
man creature,  planted  down  into  so  unmanageable  an  envi- 
ronment. So  beautiful  a  being,  so  full  of  youth,  of  native 
grace  and  gift ;  meaning  of  herself  no  harm  to  Scotland  or  to 
anybody  ;  joyfully  going  her  Progresses  through  her  domin- 
ions ;  fond  of  hawking,  hunting,  music,  literary  study  ; 1  cheer- 
fully accepting  every  gift  that  out-door  life,  even  in  Scotland, 
can  offer  to  its  right  joyous-minded  and  ethereal  young  Queen. 
With  irresistible  sympathy  one  is  tempted  to  pity  this  poor 

3  i  The  Queen  readeth  daily  after  her  dinner,  instructed  by  a  learned 
man,  Mr.  George  Bowhanan,  somewhat  of  Livy.' — Randolph  to  Cecil, 
April  7,  1562  (cited  in  Irving' s  Life  of  Buchanan,  p.  114;. 


52 


THE  PORTIIAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


Sister-soul,  involved  in  such  a  chaos  of  contradictions  ;  and 
hurried  down  to  tragical  destruction  by  them.  No  Clvtem- 
nestra  or  Medea,  when  one  thinks  of  that  last  scene  in  Foth- 
eringay,  is  more  essentially  a  theme  of  tragedy.  The  tendency 
of  all  is  to  ask,  '  What  peculiar  harm  did  she  ever  mean  to 
Scotland,  or  to  any  Scottish  man  not  already  her  enemy  ? ' 
The  answer  to  which  is,  '  Alas,  she  meant  no  harm  to  Scot- 
land ;  was  perhaps  loyally  wishing  the  reverse  ;  but  was  she 
not  with  her  whole  industry  doing,  or  endeavouring  to  do,  the 
sum-total  of  all  harm  •  whatsoever  that  was  possible  for  Scot- 
land, namely,  the  covering  it  up  in  Papist  darkness,  as  in  an 
accursed  winding-sheet  of  spiritual  death  eternal?  1 — That,  alas, 
is  the  dismally  true  account  of  what  she  tended  to,  during  her 
whole  life  in  Scotland  or  in  England  ;  and  there,  with  as  deep 
a  tragic  feeling  as  belongs  to  Clytemnestra,  Medea,  or  any 
other,  wre  must  leave  her  condemned. 

The  story  of  this  great  epoch  is  nowhere  to  be  found  so  im- 
pressively narrated  as  in  this  Book  of  Knox  ;  a  hasty,  loose 
production,  but  grounded  on  the  completest  knowledge,  and 
with  visible  intention  of  setting  down  faithfully  both  the  im- 
perfections of  poor  fallible  men,  .and  the  unspeakable  mercies 
of  God  to  this  poor  realm  of  Scotland.  And  truly  the  struggle 
in  itself  was  great,  nearly  unique  in  that  section  of  European 
History  ;  and  at  this  day  stands  much  in  need  of  being  far 
better  known  than  it  has  much  chance  of  being  to  the  present 
generation.  I  suppose  there  is  not  now  in  the  whole  world  a 
nobility  and  population  that  would  rise,  for  any  imaginable 
reason,  into  such  a  simple  nobleness  of  resolution  to  do  battle 
for  the  highest  cause  against  the  powers  that  be,  as  those 
Scottish  nobles  and  their  followers  at  that  time  did.  Eob- 
ertson's  account,  in  spite  of  its  clearness,  smooth  regularity, 
and  complete  intelligibility  down  to  the  bottom  of  its  own 
shallow  depths,  is  totally  dark  as  to  the  deeper  and  interior 
meaning  of  this  great  movement ;  cold  as  ice  to  all  that  is 
highest  in  the  meaning  of  this  phenomenon  ;  which  has  proved 
the  parent  of  endless  blessing  to  Scotland  and  to  all  Scots- 
men. Robertson's  fine  gifts  have  proved  of  no  avail ;  his  sym~ 


THE  SOMERVILLE  PORTRAIT. 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


55 


pathy  with  his  subject  being*  almost  null,  and  his  aim  mainly 
to  be  what  is  called  impartial — that  is,  to  give  no  pain  to  any 
prejudice,  and  to  be  intelligible  on  a  first  perusal. 

Scottish  Puritanism,  well  considered,  seems  to  me  distinct- 
ly the  noblest  and  completest  form  that  the  grand  Sixteenth 
Century  Eeformation  anywhere  assumed.  "We  may  say  also 
that  it  has  been  by  far  the  most  widely  fruitful  form  ;  for  in 
the  next  century  it  had  produced  English  Cromwellian  Pu- 
ritanism, with  open  Bible  in  one  hand,  drawn  Sword  in  the 
other,  and  victorious  foot  trampling  on  Komish  Babylon  ;  that 
is  to  say,  irrevocably  refusing  to  believe  what  is  not  a  Fact  in 
God's  Universe,  but  a  mingled  mass  of  self-delusions  and  men- 
dacities in  the  region  of  Chimera.  So  that  now  we  look  for 
the  effects  of  it  not  in  Scotland  only,  or  in  our  small  British 
Islands  only,  but  over  wide  seas,  huge  American  continents, 
and  growing  British  nations  in  every  zone  of  the  earth.  And, 
in  brief,  shall  have  to  admit  that  John  Knox,  the  authentic 
Prometheus  of  all  that,  has  been  a  most  distinguished  Son  of 
Adam,  and  had  probably  a  physiognomy  worth  looking  at. 
We  have  still  one  Portrait  of  him  to  produce,  the  Somerville 
Portrait  so  named,  widely  different  from  the  Beza  Icon  and  its 
progeny  ;  and  will  therewith  close. 

III. 

In  1836  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge, 
or  the  late  jCharles  Knight  in  the  name  of  that,  published  an 
Engraving  of  a  Portrait  which  had  not  before  been  heard  of 
among  the  readers  of  Knox,^nd  which  gave  a  new  arid  greatly 
more  credible  account  of  Knox's  face  and  outward  appear- 
ance. This  is  what  has  since  been  called  the  Somerville  Por- 
trait of  Knox  ;  of  which  Engraving  a  fac-simile  is  here  laid 
before  the  reader.  In  1849  the  same  Engraving  was  a  second 
time  published  in  Knight's  Pictorial  History  of  England.  It 
was  out  of  this  that  I  first  obtained  sight  of  it ;  and  as  soon  as 
possible  had  another  copy  of  the  Engraving  framed  and  hung 
up  beside  me  ;  believing  that  Mr.  Knight,  or  the  Society  he 
published  for,  had  made  the  due  inquiries  from  the  Somer- 
ville family,  and  found  the  answers  satisfactory  ;  I  myself 


50  THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 

nothing  doubting  to  'accept  it  as  the  veritable  Portrait  of 
Knox.  Copies  of  this  Engraving  are  often  found  in  port- 
folios, but  seldom  hung  upon  the  walls  of  a  study  ;  and  I 
doubt  if  it  has  ever  had  much  circulation,  especially  among 
the  more  serious  readers  of  Knox.  For  my  own  share,  I  had 
unhesitatingly  believed  in  it  ;  and  knew  not  that  anybody 
called  it  in  question  till  two  or  three  years  ago,  in  the  immense 
uproar  which  arose  in  Scotland  on  the  subject  of  a  monument 
to  Knox,  and  the  utter  collapse  it  ended  in — evidently  enough 
not  for  want  of  money,  to  the  unlimited  amount  of  millions, 
but  of  any  plan  that  could  be  agreed  on  with  the  slightest 
chance  of  feasibility.  This  raised  an  inquiry  as  to  the  out- 
ward appearance  of  Knox,  and  especially  as  to  this  Somerville 
Likeness,  which  I  believed,  and  cannot  but  still  believe,  to  be 
the  only  probable  likeness  of  him  anywhere  known  to  exist. 
Of  its  history,  what  can  be  recovered  of  it  is  as  follows. 

On  the  death  of  the  last  Baron  Somerville,  some  three  or 
four  years  ago,  the  Somerville  Peerage,  after  four  centuries 
of  duration,  became  extinct ;  and  this  Picture  then  passed 
into  the  possession  of  one  of  the  representatives  of 'the  family, 
the  Hon.  Mrs.  Ralph  Smyth  of  Gaybrook,  near  Mullingar,  Ire- 
land. This  lady  wTas  a  stranger  to  me  ;  but  on  being  applied 
to,  kindly  had  a  list  of  questions  with  reference  to  the  Knox 
Portrait,  which  were  drawn  up  by  an  artist  friend  and  sent  to 
her,  minutely  answered  ;  and  afterwards,  with  a  courtesy  and 
graceful  kindness  ever  since  pleasant  to  think  of,. offered  on 
her  coming  to  London  to  bring  the  Picture  itself  hither.  All 
which  accordingly  took  effect  ;  a«d  in  sum,  the  Picture  was 
intrusted  altogether  to  the  keeping  of  these  inquirers,  and 
stood  for  above  three  months  patent  to  every  kind  of  exami- 
nation,— until  it  was,  by  direction  of  its  lady  owner,  removed 
to  the  Loan  Gallery  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  where 
it  still  hangs.  And  in  effect  it  was  inspected,  in  some  cases 
with  the  greatest  minuteness,  by  the  most  distinguished  Ar- 
tists and  judges  of  art  that  could  be  found  in  London.  On 
certain  points  they  wrere  all  agreed  ;  as,  for  instance,  that  it 
was  a  portrait  in  all  probability  like  the  man  intended  to  be 
represented  ;  that  it  was  a  roughly  executed  work  ;  probably 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


57 


a  copy  ;  certainly  not  of  earlier,  most  likely  of  later  date,  than 
Godfrey  Kneller's  time  ;  that  the  head  represented  must  have 
belonged  to  a  person  of  distinguished  talent,  character,  and 
qualities.  For  the  rest,  several  of  these  gentlemen  objected 
to  the  costume  as  belonging  to  the  Puritan  rather  than  to 
Knox's  time  ;  concerning  which  preliminary  objection  more 
anon,  and  again  more. 

Mr.  Kobert  Tait,  a  well-known  Artist,  of  whom  we  have 
already  spoken,  and  who  has  taken  great  pains  in  this  matter, 
says  : 

'  The  Engraving  from  the  Somerville  Portrait  is  an  un- 
(  usually  correct  and  successful  representation  of  it,  yet  it 
'  conveys  a  higher  impression  than  the  Picture  itself  does ; 
(  the  features,  especially  the  eyes  and  nose,  are  finer  in  form, 
6  and  more  firmly  defined  in  the  engraving  than  in  the  Picture, 
6  while  the  bricky  colour  in  the  face  of  the  latter  and  a  some- 

*  what  glistening  appearance  in  the  skin  give  rather  a  sensual 
'  character  to  the  head.  These  defects  or  peculiarities  in  the 
6  colour  and  surface  are,  however,  probably  due  to  repainting  ; 

*  the  Picture  must  have  been  a  good  deal  retouched,  when  it 
6  was  lined,  some  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  ;  and  signs  are  not 

*  wanting  of  even  earlier  manipulation.  .  .  .  Some  per- 
'  sons  have  said  that  the  dress,  especially  the  falling  band, 
'  belongs  to  a  later  age  than  that  of  Knox,  and  is  sufficient  to 
( invalidate  the  Portrait ;  but  such  is  not  the  case,  for  white 
'  collars  or  bands,  of  various  shapes  and  sizes,  were  in  use  in 
'  Knox's  time,  and  are  found  in  the  portraits  and  frequently 
'  referred  to  in  the  literature  of  Elizabeth's  reign.' 

The  remark  of  Mr.  Tait  in  reference  to  the  somewhat  un- 
pleasant '  surface '  of  the  Somerville  Picture  is  clearly  illus- 
trated by  looking  at  an  excellent  copy  of  it,  painted  a  few 
months  ago  by  Mr.  Samuel  Laurence,  in  which,  although  the 
likeness  is  accurately  preserved,  the  head  has,  on  account  of 
the  less  oily  c  surface '  of  the  picture,  a  much  more  refined 
appearance. 

At  the  top  of  the  folio  Book,  which  Knox  holds  with  his 
right-hand  fingers,  there  are  in  the  Picture,  though  omitted 
in  the  engraving,  certain  letters,  two  or  three  of  them  distinct, 


58 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


the  others  broken,  scratchy,  and  altogether  illegible.  Out  of 
these,  various  attempts  were  made  by  several  of  us  to  decipher 
some  precise  inscription ;  but  in  all  the  languages  we  had, 
nothing  could  be  done  in  that  way,  till  at  length,  what  might 
have  happened  earlier,  the  natural  idea  suggested  itself  that 
in  all  likelihood  the  folio  volume  was  the  Geneva  Bible  ;  and 
that  the  half-obliterated  letters  were  probably  the  heading  of 
the  page.  Examination  at  the  British  Museum  was  at  once 
made  ;  of  which,  from  a  faithful  inspector,  this  is  the  report : 
1  There  are  three  folio  editions,  printed  in  Koman  type,  of  the 
'  Geneva  Bible,  1560,  '62,  '70.  The  volume  represented  in 
£  the  Picture,  which  also  is  in  Bom  an  ,  not  in  Black  Letter, 
'  fairly  resembles  in  a  rough  way  the  folio  of  1562.  Each 
'  page  has  two  columns  for  the  text,  and  a  narrow  stripe  of 
'  commentary,  or  what  is  now  called  margin,  in  very  small 
t  type  along  the  edges,  which  is  more  copious  and  continuous 
'  than  in  the  original,  but  otherwise  sufficiently  indicates  it- 
'  self.  Headings  at  the  top  of  the  pages  in  larger  type  than 
'  that  of  the  text.  Each  verse  is  separate,  and  the  gaps  at  the 
(  ends  of  many  of  them  are  very  like  those  seen  in  the  Pict- 
6  ure.' 

I  was  informed  by  Mrs.  Balph  Smyth  that  she  knew  noth- 
ing more  of  the  Picture  than  that  it  had,  as  long  as  she  could 
remember,  always  hung  on  the  walls  of  the  Somerville  town- 
house  in  Hill  Street,  Mayfair, — but  this  Lady  being  still  young 
in  years,  her  recollection  does  not  carry  us  far  back.  One 
other  light  point  in  her  memory  was  a  tradition  in  the  family 
that  it  was  brought  into  their  possession  by  James,  the  thir- 
teenth Baron  Somerville  ;  but  all  the  Papers  connected  with 
the  family  having  been  destroyed  some  years  ago  by  fire,  in  a 
solicitors  office  in  London,  there  was  no  means  either  of  ver- 
ifying or  falsifying  that  tradition. 

Of  this  James,  thirteenth  Lord  Somerville,  there  is  the  fol- 
lowing pleasant  suggestive  notice  by  Boswell,  in  his  Life  of 
Johnson  : 

'  The  late  Lord  Somerville,  who  saw  much  both  of  great 
'  and  brilliant  life,  told  me  that  he  had  dined  in  company  with 
1  Pope,  and  that  after  dinner  the  "  little  man,"  as  he  called  him, 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


59 


*  drank  Lis  bottle  of  Burgundy,  and  was  exceedingly  gay  and 
4  entertaining.' 

And  as  a  foot-note  Boswell  adds  : 

'Let  me  here  express  my  grateful  remembrance  of  Lord 
'  Somerville's  kindness  to  me  at  a  very  early  period.    He  was 

*  the  first  person  of  high  rank  that  took  particular  notice  of 
'  me  in  the  way  most  flattering  to  a  young  man,  fondly  am- 
6  bitious  of  being  distinguished  for  his  literary  talents  ;  and  by 
£  the  honour  of  his  encouragement  made  me  think  well  of  my- 

*  self,  and  aspire  to  deserve  it  better.  He  had  a  happy  art  of 
'  communicating  his  varied  knowledge  of  the  world,  in  short 
c  remarks  and  anecdotes,  with  a  quiet,  pleasant  gravity  that 

*  was  exceedingly  engaging.    Never  shall  I  forget  the  hours 

*  which  I  enjoyed  with  him  at  his  apartments  in  the  Royal 

*  Palace  of  Holyrood  House,  and  at  his  seat  near  Edinburgh, 
4  which  he  himself  had  formed  with  an  elegant  taste.' 1 

The  vague  guess  is  that  this  James,  thirteenth  Baron  Som- 
erville,  had  somewhere  fallen  in  with  an  excellent  Portrait  of 
Knox,  seemingly  by  some  distinguished  Artist  of  Knox's  time  ; 
and  had  had  a  copy  of  it  painted, — presumably  for  his  man- 
sion of  Drum,  near  Edinburgh,  long  years  perhaps  before  it 
came  to  Mayfair. 

Among  scrutinizers  here,  it  was  early  recollected  that  there 
hung  in  the  Royal  Society's  rooms  an  excellent  Portrait  of 
Buchanan,  undisputedly  painted  by  Francis  Porbus  ;  that 
Knox  and  Buchanan  were  children  of  the  same  year  (1505), 
and  that  both  the  Portrait  of  Buchanan  and  that  of  Knox  in- 
dicated for  the  sitter  an  age  of  about  sixty  or  more.  So  that 
one  preliminary  doubt, — Was  there  in  Scotland,  about  1565, 
an  artist  capable  of  such  a  Portrait  as  this  of  Knox  ? — was 
completely  abolished  ;  and  the  natural  inquiry  arose,  can  any 
traces  of  affinity  between  these  two  be  discovered  ? 

The  eminent  Sculptor,  Mr.  J.  E.  Boehm,  whose  judgment 
of  painting,  and  knowledge  of  the  history,  styles,  and  epochs 
of  it,  seemed  to  my  poor  laic  mind  far  beyond  that  of  any 
other  I  had  communed  with,  directly  visited,  along  with  me. 

1  Bosweirs  Life  of  Johnson,  Fitz  Gerald's  edit,  Lond.,  1874,  ii.  p.  434. 


60 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


the  Koyal  Society's  Collection  ;  found  in  this  Buchanan  per- 
ceptible traces  of  kinship  with  the  Knox  Portrait ;  and  visited 
thereupon,  and  examined,  with  great  minuteness,  whatever 
Porbuses  we  could  hear  of  in  London  or  neighbourhood. 
And  always,  as  was  evident  to  me,  with  growing  clearness  of 
conviction  that  this  Portrait  of  Knox  was  a  coarse  and  rapid, 
but  effective,  probably  somewhat  enlarged  copy  after  Porbus, 
done  to  all  appearance  in  the  above-named  Baron  Somerville's 
time ;  that  is,  before  1766.  Mr/  Boehm,  with  every  new  Porbus, 
became  more  interested  in  this  research  ;  and  regretted  with 
me  that  so  few  Porbuses  were  attainable  here,  and  of  these, 
several  not  by  our  Buchanan  Porbus,  Francois  Porbus,  or 
Pourbus,  called  in  our  dictionaries  le  vieux,  but  by  his  son 
and  by  his  father.  Last  autumn  Mr.  Boehm  was  rusticating 
in  the  Netherlands.  There  he  saw  and  examined  many  Por- 
buses, and  the  following  is  the  account  which  he  gives  of  his 
researches  there  : 

'  I  will  try,  as  best  I  can,  to  enumerate  the  reasons  why  I 
4  think  that  the  Somerville  Picture  is  a  copy,  and  why  a  copy, 
'  after  Francis  Porbus. 

'  That  it  is  a  copy  done  in  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century 

*  can  be  easily  seen  by  the  manner  of  painting,  and  by  the 
4  mediums  used,  which  produced  a  certain  circular  cracking 
'throughout  the  picture,  peculiar  only  to  the  paintings  of  that 
'  period.    Its  being  a  little  over  the  size  of  nature  suggests 

*  that  it  was  done  after  a  smaller  picture,  as  it  is  not  probable 
'  that,  had  it  been  done  from  life,  or  from  a  life-sized  head, 
'  the  artist  would  have  got  into  those  proportions  ;  and  most 
'  of  the  portraits  by  Porbus  (as  also  by  Holbein,  Albrecht 
'  Dtirer,  the  contemporary  and  previous  masters)  are  a  little 
'  under  life-size,  as  the  sitter  would  appear  to  the  painter  at  a 

*  certain  distance. 

'  The  Somerville  Picture  at  first  reminded  me  more  of  Por- 

*  bus  than  of  any  other  painter  of  that  time,  although  I  did 

*  not  then  know  whether  Porbus  had  ever  been  in  England, 
1  as,  judging  by  the  fact  that  he  painted  Knox's  contemporary, 

*  George  Buchanan,  we  may  now  fairly  suppose  was  the  case, 
'Last  autumn  at  Bruges,  Ghent,  Brussels,  and  Antwerp  J 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


01 


1  carefully  examined  no  less  than  forty  portraits  by  Francis 
4  Porbus,  le  vieux.  There  are  two  pictures  at  Bruges  in  each 
4  of  which  are  sixteen  portrait  heads,  carefully  painted  and 
4  well  preserved,  somewhat  smaller  than  that  of  Buchanan  ; 
4  and  I  can  most  vividly  figure  to  myself  that  the  original 
4  after  which  the  said  copy  was  painted  must  have  been  like 
4  that,  and  not  otherwise  ;  indeed,  if  I  had  found  the  original 
4  in  a  corner  of  one  of  the  galleries,  my  astonishment  would 
4  have  been  as  small  as  my  pleasure  in  apprising  you  of  the 
4  find  would  have  been  great.  In  some  of  these  forty  por- 
4 traits  the  costumes,  including  the  large  white  collar,  which 
'has  been  objected  to,  are  very  similar  to  John  Knox's  ;  and 
4  in  the  whole  of  them  there  are  traces  in  drawing,  arrange- 
4  ment  of  light  and  shadow,  conception  of  character,  and  all 
4  those  qualities  which  can  never  quite  be  drowned  in  a  repro- 
4  duction,  and  which  are,  it  seems  to  me,  clearly  discerned  in 
4  this  copy,  done  by  a  free  and  swift  hand,  careful  only  to  re- 
4  produce  the  likeness  and  general  effect,  and  heedless  of  the 
4  delicate  and  refined  touch  of  the  great  master. — J.  E.  Boehm.' 

From  the  well-known  and  highly  estimated  Mr.  Merritt  of 
the  National  Gallery,  who  had  not  heard  of  the  Picture  at  all, 
nor  of  these  multifarious  researches,  but  who  on  being  ap- 
plied to  by  a  common  friend  (for  I  have  never  had  the  pleas- 
ure of  personally  knowing  Mr.  Merritt)  kindly  consented  to 
go  to  the  South  Kensington  and  examine  the  Picture, — I  re- 
ceive, naturally  with  pleasure  and  surprise,  the  following  re- 
port : 

6  54  Devonshire  Street,  Portland  Place,  W. 

4  9  January,  1875. 

*  After  a  careful  inspection  of  the  portrait,  I  am  bound  to 
c  say  that  the  signs  of  age  are  absent  from  the  surface,  and  I 
4  should  therefore  conjecture  that  it  is  a  copy  of  a  portrait  of 
'the  time  of  Francis  Pourbus,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for 
4  the  portrait  of  George  Buchanan,  which  I  believe  is  in  the 
'  possession  of  the  Boyal  Society. 

4  My  opinion  is  in  favour  of  the  Somerville  Portrait  being 
'of  Knox.    Strongly  marked  features  like  those  were  not 


62 


THE  PORTRAITS  OF  JOHN  KNOX. 


'  likely  to  be  confounded  with  any  other  man's.  The  world 
'has  a  way  of  handing  down  the  lineaments  of  great  mem 
'  Records  and  tradition,  as  experience  has  shown  me,  do  their 
'  work  in  this  respect  very  effectively. — Henry  Meeritt.' 

This  is  all  the  evidence  we  have  to  offer  on  the  Somerville 
Portrait.  The  preliminary  objection  in  respect  to  costume, 
as  wre  have  seen,  is  without  validity,  and  may  be  classed,  in 
House  of  Commons'  language,  as  'frivolous  and  vexatious.' 
The  Picture  is  not  an  ideal,  but  that  of  an  actual  man,  or,  still 
more  precisely,  an  actual  Scottish  ecclesiastical  man.  In  ex- 
ternal evidence,  unless  the  original  turn  up,  which  is  not  im- 
possible, though  much  improbable,  there  can  be  none  com- 
plete in  regard  to  such  a  matter  ;  but  with  internal  evidence 
to  some  of  us  it  is  replete,  and  beams  brightly  with  it  through 
every  pore.  For  my  own  share,  if  it  is  not  John  Knox,  the 
Scottish  hero  and  evangelist  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  can- 
not conjecture  who  or  what  it  is. 


TAYLOR'S  HISTORIC  SURVEY 


OF 


GERMAN  POETRY. 


TAYLOR'S  HISTORIC  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


Upwards  of  half  a  century  since  German  Literature  began  to  make  its 
way  in  England.  Hannah  Moore's  trumpet-blast  against  these  modern 
'  Huns  and  A4andals.'  Our  knowledge  now  becoming  better,  if  only  be- 
cause more  general.  Claims  of  Mr.  Taylor's  Book  to  a  respectful  exam- 
ination :  Its  value  and  shortcomings,  (p.  72). — What  would  be  implied 
by  a  Complete  History  of  German  Poetry  :  The  History  of  a  nation's 
Poetry  the  essence  of  its  History,  political,  economic,  scientific,  relig- 
ious. Such  a  History  of  the  Germans  would  not  be  wanting  in  peculiar 
human  interest :  Their  poetical  Infancy  and  Boyhood  ;  Enthusiastic 
Youth  ;  Free  Manhood  ;  Spiritual  Vastation,  and  New  Birth.  (77). — 
Mr.  Taylor's  k  Historic  Survey,'  a  mere  aggregate  of  fragmentary  Notices, 
held  together  by  the  Bookbinder's  packthread  :  Its  incredible  misstate- 
ments of  facts,  and  general  incorrectness  and  insufficiency.  He  goes 
through  Germany,  scenting  out  Infidelity  with  the  nose  of  an  ancient 
Heresy-hunter ;  though  for  opposite  purposes.  Mr..  Taylor's  whole 
Philosophy  sensual ;  he  recognises  nothing  that  cannot  be  weighed  and 
measured,  eaten  and  digested  :  Every  fibre  of  him  Philistine.  (90). — 
The  best  Essay  in  the  book,  that  on  Klopstock  :  Beautiful  allegory  of 
The  Ttco  Muses.  Foolish  admiration  for  Kotzebue  and  his  like.  His 
scepticism  at  least  honest  and  worthy  of  respect.  Literature  fast  becom- 
ing all  in  all  to  us,  our  Church,  our  Senate,  our  whole  Social  Constitu- 
tion. Its  tendency  to  a  general  European  Commonweal ;  whereby  the 
wisest  in  all  nations  may  communicate  and  cooperate.  (101). 


TAYLOR'S  HISTORIC  SURVEY 

OF 

GERMAN  POETRY.1 


[1831.] 

German  Literature  has  now  for  upwards  of  half  a  century 
been  making  some  way  in  England  ;  yet  by  no  means  at  a  con- 
stant rate,  rather  in  capricious  flux  and  reflux, — deluge  alter- 
nating with  desiccation  :  never  would  it  assume  such  moder- 
ate, reasonable  currency,  as  promised  to  be  useful  and  lasting. 
The  history  of  its  progress  here  would  illustrate  the  progress 
of  more  important  things  ;  would  again  exemplify  what  ob- 
stacles a  new  spiritual  object,  with  its  mixture  of  truth  and  of 
falsehood,  has  to  encounter  from  unwise  enemies,  still  more 
from  unwise  friends  ;  how  dross  is  mistaken  for  metal,  and 
common  ashes  are  solemnly  labelled  as  fell  poison  ;  how  long, 
in  such  cases,  blind  Passion  must  vociferate  before  she  can 
awaken  Judgment ;  in  short,  with  what  tumult,  vicissitude  and 
protracted  difficulty,  a  foreign,  doctrine  adjusts  and  locates  it- 
self among  the  homeborn.  Perfect  ignorance  is  quiet,  perfect 
knowledge  is  quiet  ;  not  so  the  transition  from  the  former  to 
the  latter.  In  a  vague,  all-exaggerating  twilight  of  wonder, 
the  new  has  to  fight  its  battle  with  the  old  ;  Hope  has  to  settle 
accounts  with  Fear  :  thus  the  scales  strangely  waver  ;  public 
opinion,  which  is  as  yet  baseless,  fluctuates  without  limit  ; 
periods  of  foolish  admiration  and  foolish  execration  must 

1  Edinburgh  Revtew,  No.  105.— Historic  Survey  of  German  Poetry 
interspersed  with  various  Translations.    By  W.  Taylor,  of  Norwich.  3 
vols.  8vo.    London,  1830. 
5 


66        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


elapse,  before  that  of  true  inquiry  and  zeal  according  to  knowl- 
edge can  begin. 

Thirty  years  ago,  for  example,  a  person  of  influence  and 
understanding  thought  good  to  emit  such  a  proclamation  as 
the  following  :  '  Those  ladies,  who  take  the  lead  in  society, 
'  are  loudly  called  upon  to  act  as  guardians  of  the  public  taste 
'  as  well  as  of  the  public  virtue.  They  are  called  upon,  there- 
fore, to  oppose,  with  the  whole  weight  of  their  influence,  the 
'irruption  of  those  swarms  of  Publications  now  daily  issuing 
'from  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  which,  like  their  ravishing 
'  predecessors  of  the  darker  ages,  though  with  far  other  and 
'more  fatal" arms,  are  overrunning  civilised  society.  Those 
*  readers,  whose  purer  taste  has  been  formed  on  the  correct 
'  models  of  the  old  classic  school,  see  with  indignation  and  as- 
'  tonishment  the  Huns  and  Vandals  once  more  overpowering 
'  the  Greeks  and  Komans.  They  behold  our  minds,  with  a  re- 
e  trograde  but  rapid  motion,  hurried  back  to  the  reign  of  Chaos 
i  and  old  Night,  by  distorted  and  unprincipled  Compositions, 
'  which,  in  spite  of  strong  flashes  of  genius,  unite  the  taste  of 
'the  Goths  with  the  morals  of  Bagshot.' — 'The  newspapers 
'  announce  that  Schiller  s  Tragedy  of  the  Robbers,  which  in- 
'  flamed  the  young  nobility  of  Germany  to  enlist  themselves 
'  into  a  band  of  highwaymen  to  rob  in  the  forests  of  Bohemia, 
*■  is  now  acting  in  England  by  persons  of  quality ! '  1 

Whether  our  fair  Amazons,  at  sound  of  this  alarm-trumpet, 
drew  up  in  array  of  war  to  discomfit  those  invading  Com- 
positions, and  snuff-out  the  lights  of  that  questionable  pri- 
vate theatre,  we  have  not  learned  ;  and  see  only  that,  if  so, 
their  campaign  was  fruitless  and  needless.  Like  the  old 
Northern  Im migrators,  those  new  Paper  Goths  marched  on 
resistless  whither  they  were  bound  ;  some  to  honour,  some  to 
dishonour,  the  most  to  oblivion  and  the  impalpable  inane  ; 
and  no  weapon  or  artillery,  not  even  the  glances  of  bright  eyes, 
but  only  the  omnipotence  of  Time  could  tame  and  assort 
them.  Thus,  Kotzebue's  truculent  armaments,  once  so  threat- 
ening, all  turned  out  to  be  mere  Phantasms  and  Night- appari- 

1  Strictures  on  tlie  Modern  System  of  Female  Education.  By  Hannah 
More.    The  Eighth  Edition,  p.  41. 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  67 

tions  ;  and  so  rushed  onwards,  like  some  Spectre-Hunt,  with 
loud  howls  indeed,  yet  hurrying  nothing  into  Chaos  but  them- 
selves. While  again,  Schiller's  Tragedy  of  tJte  Robbers,  which 
did  not  inflame  either  the  young  or  the  old  nobility  of  Ger- 
many to  rob  in  the  forests  of  Bohemia,  or  indeed  to  do  any- 
thing, except  perhaps  yawn  a  little  less,  proved  equally  innocu- 
ous in  England,  and  might  still  be  acted  without  offence, 
could  living  individuals,  idle  enough  for  that  end,  be  met  with 
here.  Nay,  this  same  Schiller,  not  indeed  by  Robbers,  yet  by 
WaUemteins,  by  Maids  of  Orleans,  and  Wilhelm  Tells,. 1ms 
actually  conquered  for  himself  a  fixed  dominion  among  us, 
which  is  yearly  widening  ;  round  which  other  German  kings, 
of  less  intrinsic  prowess,  and  of  greater,  are  likewise  erecting 
thrones.  And  yet,  as  we  perceive,  civilised  society  still  stands 
in  its  place  ;  and  the  public  taste,  as  wTell  as  the  public  virtue, 
live  on,  though  languidly,  as  before.  For,  in  fine,  it  has  be- 
come manifest  that  the  old  Cimmerian  Forest  is  now  quite  felled 
and  tilled  ;  that  the  true  Children  of  Night,  whom  we  have  to 
dread,  dwell  not  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  but  nearer  hand. 

Could  we  take  our  progress  in  knowledge  of  German  Lit- 
erature since  that  diatribe  was  written,  as  any  measure  of  our 
progress  in  the  science  of  Criticism,  above  all,  in  the  grand 
science  of  national  Tolerance,  there  were  some  reason  for  satis- 
faction. With  regard  to  Germany  itself,  whether  we  yet  stand 
on  the  right  footing,  and  know  at  last  how  we  are  to  live  in 
profitable  neighbourhood  and  intercourse  with  that  country  ; 
or  whether  the  present  is  but  one  other  of  those  capricious 
tides,  which  also  will  have  its  reflux,  may  seem  doubtful  : 
meanwhile,  clearly  enough,  a  rapidly  growing  favour  for 
German  Literature  comes  to  light ;  which  favour  too  is  the 
more  hopeful,  as  it  now  grounds  itself  on  better  knowledge, 
on  direct  study  and  judgment.  Our  knowledge  is  better,  if 
only  because  more  general.  Within  the  last  ten  years,  inde- 
pendent readers  of  German  have  multiplied  perhaps  a  hundred- 
fold ;  so  that  now  this  acquirement  is  almost  expected  as  a 
natural  item  in  liberal  education.  Hence,  in  a  great  number 
of  minds,  some  immediate  personal  insight  into  the  deeper 
significance  of  German  Intellect  and  Art ; — everywhere,  at 


C8        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


least  a  feeling  that  it  lias  some  such  significance.  With  inde* 
pendent  readers,  moreover,  the  writer  ceases  to  be  independent, 
which  of  itself  is  a  considerable  step.  Our  British  Transla- 
tors, for  instance,  have  long  been  unparalleled  in  modern 
literature,  and,  like  their  country,  '  the  envy  of  surrounding 
nations  :  '  but  now  there  are  symptoms  that,  even  in  the 
remote  German  province,  they  must  no  longer  range  quite  at 
will  ;  that  the  butchering  of  a  Faust  will  henceforth  be  ac- 
counted literary  homicide,  and  practitioners  of  that  quality 
must  operate  on  the  dead  subject  only.  While  there  are 
Klingemanns  and  Claurens  in  such  abundance,  let  no  merely 
ambitious,  or  merely  hungry  Interpreter  fasten  on  Goethes 
and  Schillers.  Remark  too,  with  satisfaction,  how  the  old- 
established  British  Critic  now  feels  that  it  has  become  unsafe 
to  speak  delirium  on  this  subject  ;  wherefore  he  prudently 
restricts  himself  to  one  of  two  courses  :  either  to  acquire  some 
understanding  of  it,  or,  which  is  the  still  surer  course,  alto- 
gether to  hold  his  peace.  Hence  freedom  from  much  babble 
that  was  wont  to  be  oppressive  :  probably  no  watchhorn  with 
such  a  note  as  that  of  Mrs.  More's  can  again  be  sounded,  by 
male  or  female  Dogberry,  in  these  Islands.  Again,  there  is 
no  one  of  our  younger,  more  vigorous  Periodicals,  but  has  its 
German  craftsman,  gleaning  what  he  can  :  we  have  seen  Jean 
Paul  quoted  in  English  Newspapers.  Nor,  among  the  signs 
of  improvement,  at  least  of  extended  curiosity,  let  us  omit 
our  British  Foreign  Reviews,  a  sort  of  merchantmen  that 
regularly  visit  the  Continental,  especially  the  German  Ports, 
and  bring  back  such  ware  as  luck  yields  them,  with  the  hope 
of  better.  Last,  not  least  among  our  evidences  of  Philo- 
Germanism,  here  is  a  whole  Historic  Survey  of  German  Poetry, 
in  three  sufficient  octavos  ;  and  this  not  merely  in  the  eulo- 
gistic and  recommendatory  vein,  but  proceeding  in  the  way  of 
criticism,  and  indifferent,  impartial  narrative  :  a  man  of  known 
character,  of  talent,  experience,  penetration,  judges  that  the 
English  public  is  prepared  for  such  a  service,  and  likely  to 
reward  it. 

These  are  appearances,  which,  as  advocates  for  the  friendly 
approximation  of  all  men  and  all  peoples,  and  the  readiest 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  69 


possible  interchange  of  whatever  each  produces  of  advantage 
to  the  others,  we  must  witness  gladly.  Free  literary  inter- 
course with  other  nations,  what  is  it  but  an  extended  Free- 
dom of  the  Press  ;  a  liberty  to  read  (in  spite  of  Ignorance, 
of  Prejudice,  which  is  the  worst  of  Censors)  what  our  foreign 
teachers  also  have  printed  for  us?  Ultimately,  therefore,  a 
liberty  to  speak  and  to  hear,  were  it  with  men  of  all  countries 
and  of  all  times  ;  to  use,  in  utmost  compass,  those  precious 
natural  organs,  by  which  not  Knowledge  only  but  mutual 
Affection  is  chiefly  generated  among  mankind  !  It  is  a  natural 
wish  in  man  to  know  his  fellow-passengers  in  this  strange 
Ship,  or  Planet,  on  this  strange  Life-voyage  :  neither  need  his 
curiosity  restrict  itself  to  the  cabin  wjiere  he  himself  chances 
to  lodge  ;  but  may  extend  to  all  accessible  departments  of  the 
vessel.  In  all  he  will  find  mysterious  beings,  of  Wants  and 
Endeavours  like  his  own  ;  in  all  lie  will  find  Men  ;  with  these 
let  him  comfort  and  manifoldly  instruct  himself.  As  to  Ger- 
man Literature,  in  particular,  which  professes  to  be  not  only 
new,  but  original,  and  rich  in  curious  information  for  us  ; 
which  claims,  moreover,  nothing  that  we  have  not  granted  to 
the  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  in  a  less  degree  to  far  meaner 
literatures,  we  are  gratified  to  see  that  such  claims  can  no 
longer  be  resisted.  In  the  present  fallow  state  of  our  English 
Literature,  when  no  Poet  cultivates  his  own  poetic  field,  but 
all  are  harnessed  into  Editorial  teams,  and  ploughing  in  con- 
cert, for  Useful  Knowledge,  or  Bibliopolic  Profit,  we  regard 
this  renewal  of  our  intercourse  with  poetic  Germany,  after 
twenty  years  of  languor  or  suspension,  as  among  the  most  re- 
markable and  even  promising  features  of  our  recent  intel- 
lectual history.  In  the  absence  of  better  tendencies,  let  this, 
which  is  no  idle,  but  in  some  points  of  view  a  deep  and  ear- 
nest one,  be  encouraged.  For  ourselves,  in  the  midst  of  so 
many  louder  and  more  exciting  interests,  we  feel  it  a  kind  of 
duty  to  cast  some  glances  now  and  then  on  this  little  stiller 
interest  :  since  the  matter  is  once  for  all  to  be  inquired  into, 
sound  notions  on  it  should  be  furthered,  unsound  ones  can- 
not be  too  speedily  corrected.  It  is  on  such  grounds  that  we 
have  taken  up  this  Historic  Survey, 


70        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


Mr.  Taylor  is  so  considerable  a  person,  tliat  no  Book  de- 
liberately published  by  him,  on  any  subject,  can  be  without 
weight.  On  German  Poetry,  such  is  the  actual  state  of  pub- 
lic information  and  curiosity,  his  guidance  will  be  sure  to  lead 
or  mislead  a  numerous  class  of  inquirers.  "We  are  therefore 
called  on  to  examine  him  with  more  than  usual  strictness  and 
minuteness.  The  Press,  in  these  times,  has  become  so  active  ; 
Literature,  what  is  still  called  Literature,  has  so  dilated  in 
volume,  and  diminished  in  density,  that  the  very  Reviewer 
feels  at  a  nonplus,  and  has  ceased  to  review.  Why  thought- 
fully examine  what  was  written  without  thought ;  or  note 
faults  and  merits,  where  there  is  neither  fault  nor  merit? 
From  a  Nonentity,  embodied,  with  innocent  deception,  in 
foolscap  and  printers'  ink,  and  named  Book  ;  from  the  com- 
mon wind  of  Talk,  even  when  it  is  conserved  by  such  mechan- 
ism, for  days,  in  the  shape  of  Froth,— how  shall  the  hapless 
Reviewer  filter  aught  in  that  once  so  profitable  colander  of 
his  ?  He  has  ceased,  as  we  said,  to  attempt  the  impossible, — 
cannot  review,  but  only  discourse  ;  he  dismisses  his  too  un- 
productive Author,  generally  with  civil  words,  not  to  quarrel 
needlessly  with  a  fellow-creature  ;  and  must  try,  as  he  best  may, 
to  grind  from  his  own  poor  garner.  Authors  long  looked  with 
an  evil,  envious  eye  on  the  Reviewer,  and  strove  often  to  blow 
out  his  light,  which  only  burnt  the  clearer  for  such  blasts  ;  but 
now,  cunningly  altering  their  tactics,  they  have  extinguished  it 
by  want  of  oil.  Unless  for  some  unforeseen  change  of  affairs,  or 
some  new-contrived  machinery,  of  which  there  is  yet  no  trace, 
the  trade  of  the  Reviewer  is  wellnigh  done. 

The  happier  are  we  that  Mr.  Taylor's  Book  is  of  the  old 
stamp,  and  has  substance  in  it  for  our  uses.  If  no  honour, 
there  will  be  no  disgrace,  in  having  carefully  examined  it ; 
which  service,  indeed,  is  due  to  our  readers,  not  without  curi- 
osity in  this  matter,  as  well  as  to  the  Author.  In  so  far  as  he 
seems  a  safe  guide,  and  brings  true  tidings  from  the  promised 
land,  let  us  proclaim  that  fact,  and  recommend  him  to  all  pil- 
grims :  if,  on  the  other  hand,  his  tidings  are  false,  let  us 
hasten  to  make  this  also  known  ;  that  the  German  Canaan 
suffer  not,  in  the  eyes  of  the  fainthearted,  by  spurious  sam- 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY,  71 


pies  of  its  produce  and  reports  of  bloodthirsty  sons  of  Anak 
dwelling  there,  which  this  harbinger  and  spy  brings  out  of  it. 
In  either  case,  we  may  hope,  our  Author,  who  loves  the  Ger- 
mans in  his  way,  and  would  have  his  countrymen  brought 
into  closer  acquaintance  with  them,  will  feel  that,  in  purpose 
at  least,  we  are  cooperating  with  him. 

First,  then,  be  it  admitted  without  hesitation,  that  Mr. 
Taylor,  in  respect  of  general  talent  and  acquirement,  takes 
his  place  above  all  our  expositors  of  German  things  ;  that 
his  Book  is  greatly  the  most  important  we  yet  have  on  this 
subject.  Here  are  upwards  of  fourteen  hundred  solid  pages 
of  commentary,  narrative  and  translation,  submitted  to  the 
English  reader  ;  numerous  statements  and  personages,  hith- 
erto unheard  of,  or  vaguely  heard  of,  stand  here  in  fixed 
shape  ;  there  is,  if  no  map  of  intellectual  Germany,  some 
first  attempt  at  such.  Farther,  we  are  to  state  that  our 
Author  is  a  zealous,  earnest  man  ;  no  hollow  dilettante  hunt- 
ing after  shadows,  and  prating  he  knows  not  what ;  but  a 
substantial,  distinct,  remarkably  decisive  man  ;  has  his  own 
opinion  on  many  subjects,  and  can  express  it  adequately. 
"We  should  say,  precision  of  idea  was  a  striking  quality  of 
his  :  no  vague  transcendentalism,  or  mysticism  of  any  kind  ; 
nothing  but  what  is  measurable  and  tangible,  and  has  a  mean- 
ing which  he  that  runs  may  read,  is  to  be  apprehended  here. 
He  is  a  man  of  much  classical  and  other  reading  ;  of  much 
singular  reflection  ;  stands  on  his  own  basis,  quiescent  yet 
immovable  :  a  certain  rugged  vigour  of  natural  power,  inter- 
esting even  in  its  distortions,  is  everywhere  manifest.  Lastly, 
we  venture  to  assign  him  the  rare  merit  of  honesty:  he 
speaks  out  in  plain  English  what  is  in  him  ;  seems  heartily 
convinced  of  his  own  doctrines,  and  preaches  them  because 
they  are  his  own  ;  not  for  the  sake  of  sale,  but  of  truth  ;  at 
worst,  for  the  sake  of  making  proselytes. 

On  the  strength  of  which  properties,  we  reckon  that  this 
Historic  Survey  may,  under  certain  conditions,  be  useful  and 
acceptable  to  two  classes.  First,  to  incipient  students  of 
German  Literature  in  the  original ;  who  in  any  History  of 
their  subject,  even  in  a  bare  catalogue,  will  find  help ;  though 


72 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


for  that  class,  unfortunately,  Mr.  Taylor's  help  is  much  dimin- 
ished in  value  by  several  circumstances ;  by  this  one,  were 
there  no  other,  that  he  nowhere  cites  any  authority  :  the  path 
he  has  opened  may  be  the  true  or  the  false  one  ;  for  farther 
researches  and  lateral  surveys  there  is  no  direction  or  indica- 
tion. But,  secondly,  we  reckon  that  this  Book  may  be  wel- 
come to  many  of  the  much  larger  miscellaneous  class,  who 
read  leso  for  any  specific  object  than  for  the  sake  of  reading  ; 
to  whom  any  book  that  will,  either  in  the  way  of  contradic- 
tion or  of  confirmation,  by  new  wisdom  or  new  perversion  of 
wisdom,  stir  up  the  stagnant  inner  man,  is  a  windfall ;  the 
rather  if  it  bring  some  historic  tidings  also,  fit  for  remember- 
ing, and  repeating  ;  above  all,  if,  as  in  this  case,  the  style 
with  many  singularities  have  some  striking  merits,  and  so  the 
book  be  a  light  exercise,  even  an  entertainment. 

To  such  praise  and  utility  the  Work  is  justly  entitled  ;  but 
this  is  not  all  it  pretends  to  ;  and  more  cannot  without  many 
limitations  be  conceded  it.  Unluckily  the  Historic  Survey  is 
not  what  it  should  be,  but  only  what  it  would  be.  Our  Au- 
thor hastens  to  correct  in  his  Preface  any  false  hopes  hie 
Title-page  may  have  excited  :  '  A  complete  History  of  Ger- 
man Poetry,' it  seems,  4  is  hardly  within  reach  of  his  local 
'  command  of  library  :  so  comprehensive  an  undertaking 
'  would  require  another  residence  in  a  country  from  which  he 
£  has  now  been  separated  more  than  forty  years  : '  and  which 
various  considerations  render  it  unadvisable  to  revisit.  Never- 
theless, '  having  long  been  in  the  practice  of  importing  the 
productions  of  its  fine  literature,'  and  of  working  in  that 
material,  as  critic,  biographer  and  translator,  for  more  than 
one  '  periodic  publication  of  this  country,'  he  has  now  com- 
posed 'introductory  and  connective  sections/  filled  up  defi- 
ciencies, retrenched  superfluities  ;  and  so,  collecting  and  re- 
modelling those  '  successive  contributions,'  cements  them 
together  into  the  1  new  and  entire  work '  here  offered  to  the 
public.  '  With  fragments,'  he  concludes,  ' long  since  hewn, 
*  as  it  were,  and  sculptured,  I  attempt  to  construct  an  Eng- 
c  lisli  Temple  of  Fame  to  the  memory  of  those  German  Poets.' 

There  is  no  doubt  but  a  Complete  History  of  German 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  73 


Poetry  exceeds  any  local  or  universal  command  of  books 
which  a  British  man  can  at  this  day  enjoy  ;  and,  farther,  pre- 
sents obstacles  of  an  infinitely  more  serious  character  than 
this.  A  History  of  German,  or  of  any  national  Poetry,  would 
form,  taken  in  its  complete  sense,  one  of  the  most  arduous 
enterprises  any  writer  could  engage  in.  Poetry,  were  it  the 
rudest,  so  it  be  sincere,  is  the  attempt  which  man  makes  to 
render  his  existence  harmonious,  the  utmost  he  can  do  for 
that  end  :  it  springs  therefore  from  his  whole  feelings,  opin- 
ions, activity,  and  takes  its  character  from  these.  It  may  be 
called  the  music  of  his  whole  manner  of  being  ;  and,  histori- 
cally considered,  is  the  test  how  far  Music,  or  Freedom,  ex- 
isted therein  ;  how  far  the  feeling  of  Love,  of  Beauty  and 
Dignity,  could  be  elicited  from  that  peculiar  situation  of  his, 
and  from  the  views  he  there  had  of  Life  and  Nature,  of  the 
Universe,  internal  and  external.  Hence,  in  any  measure  to 
understand  the  Poetry,  to  estimate  its  worth  and  historical 
meaning,  we  ask  as  a  quite  fundamental  inquiry  :  "What  that 
situation  w^as  ?  Thus  the  History  of  a  nation's  Poetry  is  the 
essence  of  its  History,  political,  economic,  scientific,  religious. 
With  all  these  the  complete  Historian  of  a  national  Poetry 
will  be  familiar ;  the  national  physiognomy,  in  its  finest 
traits,  and  through  its  successive  stages  of  growth,  will  be 
clear  to  him  :  he  will  discern  the  grand  spiritual  Tendency  of 
each  period,  what  wras  the  highest  Aim  and  Enthusiasm  of 
mankind  in  each,  and  how  one  epoch  naturally  evolved  itself 
from  the  other.  He  has  to  record  the  highest  Aim  of  a 
nation,  in  its  successive  directions  and  developments  ;  for  by 
this  the  Poetry  of  the  nation  modulates  itself  ;  this  is  the 
Poetry  of  the  nation. 

Such  were  the  primary  essence  of  a  true  History  of  Poetry  ; 
the  living  principle  round  which  all  detached  facts  and  phe- 
nomena, all  separate  characters  of  Poems  and  Poets,  would 
fashion  themselves  into  a  coherent  whole,  if  they  are  by  any 
means  to  cohere.  To  accomplish  such  a  work  for  any  Lit- 
erature would  require  not  only  all  outward  aids,  but  an  ex- 
cellent inward  faculty  :  all  telescopes  and  observatories  were  of 
no  avail,  without  the  seeing  eye  and  the  understanding  heart, 


7i        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY 


Doubtless,  as  matters  stand,  such  models  remain  in  great 
part  ideal  ;  the  stinted  result  of  actual  practice  must  not  be 
too  rigidly  tried  by  them.  In  our  language,  we  have  yet  no 
example  of  such  a  performance.  Neither  elsewhere,  except 
perhaps  in  the  well-meant,  but  altogether  ineffectual,  attempt 
of  Denina,  among  the  Italians,  and  in  some  detached,  though 
far  more  successful,  sketches  by  German  writers,  is  there 
any  that  we  know  of.  To  expect  an  English  History  of 
German  Literature  in  this  style  were  especially  unreason- 
able ;  where  not  only  the  man  to  write  it,  but  the  people  to 
read  and  enjoy  it  are  wanting.  Some  Historic  Survey,  where- 
in such  an  ideal  standard,  if  not  attained,  if  not  approached, 
might  be  faithfully  kept  in  view,  and  endeavoured  after, 
would  suffice  us.  Neither  need  such  a  Survey,  even  as  a 
British  Surveyor  might  execute  it,  be  deficient  in  striking 
objects,  and  views  of  a  general  interest.  There  is  the  specta- 
cle of  a  great  people,  closely  related  to  us  in  blood,  language, 
character,  advancing  through  fifteen  centuries  of  culture  ; 
with  the  eras  and  changes  that  have  distinguished  the  like 
career  in  other  nations.  Nay,  perhaps,  the  intellectual  his- 
tory of  the  Germans  is  not  without  peculiar  attraction,  on  two 
grounds :  first,  that  they  are  a  separate  unmixed  people  ; 
that  in  them  one  of  the  two  grand  stem-tribes,  from  which 
all  modern  European  countries  derive  their  population  and 
speech,  is  seen  growing  up  distinct,  and  in  several  particulars 
following  its  own  course  :  secondly,  that  by  accident  and  by 
desert,  the  Germans  have  more  than  once  been  found  playing 
the  highest  part  in  European  culture  ;  at  more  than  one  era  the 
grand  Tendencies  of  Europe  have  first  embodied  themselves 
into  action  in  Germany,  the  main  battle  between  the  New  and 
the  Old  has  been  fought  and  gained  there.  We  mention  only 
the  Swiss  Revolt,  and  Luther's  Reformation.  The  Germans  have 
not  indeed  so  many  classical  works  to  exhibit  as  some  other 
nations  ;  a  Shakspeare,  a  Dante,  has  not  yet  been  recognised 
among  them  ;  nevertheless,  they  too  have  had  their  Teachers 
and  inspired  Singers  ;  and  in  regard  to  popular  Mythology, 
traditionary  possessions  and  spirit,  what  we  may  call  the  in- 
articulate Poetry  of  a  nation,  and  what  is  the  element  of  its 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  75 


spoken  or  written  Poetry,  they  will  be  found  superior  to  any 
other  modern  people. 

The  Historic  Surveyor  of  German  Poetry  will  observe  a  re- 
markable nation  struggling  out  of  Paganism  ;  fragments  of 
that  stern  Superstition,  saved  from  the  general  wreck,  and 
still,  amid  the  new  order  of  things,  carrying  back  our  view, 
in  faint  reflexes,  into  the  dim  primeval  time.  By  slow  de- 
grees the  chaos  of  the  Northern  Immigrations  settles  into  a 
new  and  fairer  world  ;  arts  advance  ;  little  by  little,  a  fund 
of  Knowledge,  of  Power  over  Nature,  is  accumulated  by 
man  ;  feeble  glimmerings,  even  of  a  higher  knowledge,  of  a 
poetic,  break  forth  ;  till  at  length  in  the  Swabian  Era>  as  it  is 
named,  a  blaze  of  true  though  simple  Poetry  bursts  over 
Germany,  more  splendid,  we  might  say,  than  the  Trouba- 
dour Period  of  any  other  nation  ;  for  that  famous  Nibelungen 
Song,  produced,  at  least  ultimately  fashioned  in  those  times, 
and  still  so  significant  in  these,  is  altogether  without  parallel 
elsewhere. 

To  this  period,  the  essence  of  which  was  young  Wonder, 
and  an  enthusiasm  for  which  Chivalry  was  still  the  fit  expo- 
nent, there  succeeds,  as  was  natural,  a  period  of  Inquiry,  a 
Didactic  period  ;  wherein,  among  the  Germans,  as  elsewhere, 
many  a  Hugo  von  Trimberg  delivers  wise  saws,  and  moral 
apophthegms,  to  the  general  edification  :  later,  a  Town-clerk 
of  Strasburg  sees  his  Ship  of  Fools  translated  into  all  living 
languages,  twice  into  Latin,  and  read  by  Kings  ;  the  Apo- 
logue of  Reynard  the  Fox  gathering  itself  together,  from 
sources  remote  and  near,  assumes  its  Low-German  vesture, 
and  becomes  the  darling  of  high  and  low ;  nay  still  lives 
with  us,  in  rude  genial  vigour,  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
indigenous  productions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Nor  is  acted 
poetry  of  this  kind  wanting  ;  the  Spirit  of  Inquiry  translates 
itself  into  Deeds  which  are  poetical,  as  well  as  into  words  : 
already  at  the  opening  of  the  fourteenth  century,  Germany 
witnesses  the  first  assertion  of  political  right,  the  first  vindi- 
cation of  Man  against  Nobleman  ;  in  the  early  history  of  the 
German  Swiss.  And  again,  two  centuries  later,  the  first 
assertion  of  intellectual  right,  the  first  vindication  of  Man 


70        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


against  Clergyman  ;  in  the  history  of  Luther's  Reformation. 
Meanwhile  the  Press  has  begun  its  incalculable  task  ;  the 
indigenous  Fiction  of  the  Germans,  what  we  have  called 
their  inarticulate  Poetry,  issues  in  innumerable  Volksbitcher 
(Peoples-Books),  the  progeny  and  kindred  of  which  still  live 
in  all  European  countries  :  the  People  have  their  Tragedy 
and  their  Comedy  ;  Tyll  Eulenspiegel  shakes  every  diaphragm 
with  laughter  ;  the  rudest  heart  quails  with  awre  at  the  wild 
my  thus  of  Faust. 

With  Luther,  however,  the  Didactic  Tendency  has  reached 
its  poetic  acme  ;  and  now  we  must  see  it  assume  a  prosaic 
character,  and  Poetry  for  a  long  while  decline.  The  Spirit 
of  Inquiry,  of  Criticism,  is  pushed  beyond  the  limits,  or  too 
exclusively  cultivated  :  what  had  done  so  much,  is  supposed 
capable  of  doing  all ;  Understanding  is  alone  listened  to, 
while  Fancy  and  Imagination  languish  inactive,  or  are  forci- 
bly stifled  ;  and  all  poetic  culture  gradually  dies  awTay.  As 
if  with  the  high  resolute  genius,  and  noble  achievements,  of 
its  Luthers  and  Huttens,  the  genius  of  the  country  had  ex- 
hausted itself,  we  behold  generation  after  generation  of  mere 
Prosaists  succeed  these  high  Psalmists.  Science  indeed  ad- 
vances, practical  manipulation  in  all  kinds  improves  ;  Ger- 
many has  its  Copernics,  Hevels,  Guerickes,  Keplers  ;  later,  a 
Leibnitz  opens  the  path  of  true  Logic,  and  teaches  the  mys- 
teries of  Figure  and  Number  :  but  the  finer  Education  of 
mankind  seems  at  a  stand.  Instead  of  Poetic  recognition 
and  worship,  we  have  stolid  Theologic  controversy,  or  still 
shallower  Freethinking  ;  pedantry,  servility,  mode-hunting, 
every  species  of  Idolatry  and  Affectation  holds  sway.  The 
World  has  lost  its  beauty,  Life  its  infinite  majesty,  as  if  the 
Author  of  it  were  no  longer  divine  :  instead  of  admiration 
and  creation  of  the  True,  there  is  at  best  criticism  and  denial 
of  the  False  ;  to  Luther  there  has  succeeded  Thomasius. 
In  this  era,  so  unpoetical  for  all  Europe,  Germany,  torn  in 
pieces  by  a  Thirty- Years'  War,  and  its  consequences,  is 
preeminently  prosaic  ;  its  few  Singers  are  feeble  echoes  of 
foreign  models  little  better  than  themselves.  No  Shak- 
speare,  no  Milton  appears  there  ;  such,  indeed,  would  have 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  77 


appeared  earlier,  if  at  all,  in  the  current  of  German  history : 
but  instead,  they  have  only  at  best  Opitzes,  Plemmings,  Lo- 
gaus,  as  we  had  our  Queen  Anne  Wits  ;  or,  in  their  Lohen- 
steins,  Gryphs,  Hoffmannswaldaus,  though  in  inverse  order, 
an  unintentional  parody  of  our  Drydens  and  Lees. 

Nevertheless  from  every  moral  death  there  is  a  new  birth  ; 
in  this  wondrous  course  of  his,  man  may  indeed  linger,  but 
cannot  retrograde  or  stand  still.  In  the  middle  of  last  cen- 
tury, from  among  Parisian  Erotics,  rickety  Sentimentalism, 
Court  aperies,  and  hollow  Durness  striving  in  all  hopeless 
courses,  we  behold  the  giant  spirit  of  Germany  awaken  as 
from  long  slumber  ;  shake  away  these  worthless  fetters,  and 
by  its  Lessings  and  Klopstocks,  announce,  in  true  German 
dialect,  that  the  Germans  also  are  men.  -  Singular  enough  in 
its  circumstances  was  this  resuscitation  ;  the  work  as  of  a 
*  spirit  on  the  wraters,'  a  movement  agitating  the  great  pop- 
ular mass  ;  for  it  was  favoured  by  no  court  or  king  :  all 
sovereignties,  even  the  pettiest,  had  abandoned  their  native 
Literature,  their  native  language,  as  if  to  irreclaimable  bar- 
barism. The  greatest  king  produced  in  Germany  since  Bar- 
barossa's  time,  Frederick  the  Second,  looked  coldly  on  the 
native  endeavour,  and  saw  no  hope  but  in  aid  from  France. 
However,  the  native  endeavour  prospered  without  aid  :  Les- 
sing's  announcement  did  not  die  away  with  him,  but  took 
clearer  utterance,  and  more  inspired  modulation  from  his 
followers  ;  in  whose  works  it  now  speaks,  not  to  Germany 
alone,  but  to  the  whole  world;  The  results  of  this  last  Pe- 
riod of  German  Literature  are  of  deep  significance,  the  depth 
of  which  is  perhaps  but  now  becoming  visible.  Here  too, 
it  may  be,  as  in  other  cases,  the  Want  of  the  Age  has  first 
taken  voice  and  shape  in  Germany  ;  that  change  from  Nega- 
tion to  Affirmation,  from  Destruction  to  Re-construction,  for 
which  all  thinkers  in  every  country  are  now  prepared,  is 
perhaps  already  in  action  there.  In  the  nobler  Literature 
of  the  Germans,  say  some,  lie  the  rudiments  of  a  new  spirit- 
ual era,  which  it  is  for  this  and  for  succeeding  generations  to 
work  out  and  realise.  The  ancient  creative  Inspiration,  it 
would  seem,  is  still  possible  in  these  ages  ;  at  a  time  when 


78        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


Scepticism,  Frivolity,  Sensuality  had  withered  Life  into  a 
sand-desert,  and  our  gayest  prospect  was  but  the  false  mi- 
rage, and  even  our  Byrons  could  utter  but  a  death-song  or 
despairing  howl,  the  Moses'-wand  has  again  struck  from  that 
Horeb  refreshing  streams,  towards  wilich  the  better  spirits 
of  all  nations  are  hastening,  if  not  to  drink,  yet  wistfully  and 
hopefully  to  examine.  If  the  older  Literary  History  of  Ger- 
many has  the  common  attractions,  which  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  belong  to  the  successive  epochs  of  other  such  Histo- 
ries ;  its  newrer  Literature,  and  the  historical  delineation  of 
this,  has  an  interest  such  as  belongs  to  no  other. 

It  is  somewrhat  in  this  way,  as  appears  to  us,  that  the  growth 
of  German  Poetry  must  be  construed  and  represented  by  the 
historian  :  these  are  the  general  phenomena  and  vicissitudes, 
which,  if  elucidated  by  proper  individual  instances,  by  speci- 
mens fitly  chosen,  presented  in  natural  sequence,  and  worked 
by  philosophy  into  union,  would  make  a  valuable  book  ;  on 
any  and  all  of  which  the  observations  and  researches  of  so 
able  an  inquirer  as  Mr.  Taylor  would  have  been  welcome. 
Sorry  are  we  to  declare  that  of  all  this,  which  constitutes  the 
essence  of  anything  calling  itself  Historic  Survey,  there  is 
scarcely  a  vestige  in  the  Book  before  us.  The  question,  What 
is  the  German  mind  ;  what  is  the  culture  of  the  German  mind  ; 
what  course  has  Germany  followed  in  that  matter  ;  what  are 
its  national  characteristics  as  manifested  therein  ?  appears  not 
to  have  presented  itself  to  the  Author's  thought.  No  theorem 
of  Germany  and  its  intellectual  progress,  not  even  a  false  one, 
has  he  been  at  pains  to  construct  for  himself.  We  believe,  it 
is  impossible  for  the  most  assiduous  reader  to  gather  froin 
these  three  Volumes  any  portraiture  of  the  national  mind  of 
Germany,  not  to  say  in  its  successive  phases  and  the  histori- 
cal sequence  of  these,  but  in.  any  one  phase  or  condition.  The 
Work  is  made  up  of  critical,  biographical,  bibliographical  dis- 
sertations, and  notices  concerning  this  and  the  other  individ- 
ual  poet ;  interspersed  with  large  masses  of  translation  ;  and 
except  that  all  these  are  strung  together  in  the  order  of  time, 
has  no  historical  feature  whatever.  Many  literary  lives  as  we 
read,  the  nature  of  literary  life  in  Germany,  what  sort  of  moral, 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  79 


economical,  intellectual  element  it  is  that  a  German  writer 
lives  in  and  works  in, — will  nowhere  manifest  itself.  Indeed, 
far  from  depicting  Germany,  scarcely  on  more  than  one  or 
two  occasions  does  our  Author  even  look  at  it,  or  so  much  as 
remind  us  that  it  were  capable  of  being  depicted.  On  these 
rare  occasions  too,  we  are  treated  with  such  philosophic  in- 
sight as  the  following :  '  The  Germans  are  not  an  imitative, 
£  but  they  are  a  listening  people  :  they  can  do  nothing  without 
'  directions,  and  anything  with  them.  As  soon  as  Gottsched's 
' rules  for  writing  German  correctly  had  made  their  appear- 
1  ance,  everybody  began  to  write  German.'  Or  we  have  the- 
oretic hints,  resting  on  no  basis,  about  some  new  tribunal  of 
taste  which  at  one  time  had  formed  itself  ( in  the  mess-rooms 
of  the  Prussian  officers  ! ' 

In  a  word,  the  £  connecting  sections/  or  indeed  by  what  al- 
chymy  such  a  congeries  could  be  connected  into  a  Historic 
Survey,  have  not  become  plain  to  us.  Considerable  part  of  it 
consists  of  quite  detached  little  Notices,  mostly  of  altogether 
insignificant  men  ;  heaped  together  as  separate  fragments  ; 
fit,  had  they  been  unexceptionable  in  other  respects,  for  a  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary,  but  nowise  for  a  Historic  Survey.  Then 
we  have  dense  masses  of  Translation,  sometimes  good,  but 
seldom  of  the  characteristic  pieces ;  an  entire  Iphigenia,  an 
entire  Nathan  the  Wise  ;  nay  worse,  a  Sequel  to  Nathan,  which 
when  we  have  conscientiously  struggled  to  peruse,  the  Author 
turns  round,  without  any  apparent  smile,  and  tells  that  it  is 
by  a  nameless  writer,  and  worth  nothing.  Not  only  Mr.  Tay- 
lor's own  Translations,  which  are  generally  good,  but  contri- 
butions from  a  whole  body  of  labourers  in  that  department 
are  given  :  for  example,  near  sixty  pages,  very  ill  rendered  by 
a  Miss  Plumtre,  of  a  Life  of  Kotzebue,  concerning  whom,  or 
whose  life,  death  or  burial,  there  is  now  no  curiosity  extant 
among  men.  If  in  that  '  English  Temple  of  Fame/  with  its 
hewn  and  sculptured  stones,  those  Biographical-Dictionary 
fragments  and  fractions  are  so  much  dry  rubhle-worh  of  whin- 
stone,  is  not  this  quite  despicable  Autobiography  of  Kotzebue 
a  rood  or  two  of  mere  turf ;  which,  as  ready-cut,  our  archi- 
tect, to  make  up  measure,  has  packed  in  among  his  marble 


80        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


ashlar  ;  whereby  the  whole  wall  will  the  sooner  bulge  ?  Bui 
indeed,  generally  speaking,  symmetry  is  not  one  of  his  archi- 
tectural rules.  Thus,  in  Volume  First,  we  have  a  long  storv 
translated  from  a  German  Magazine,  about  certain  antique 
Hyperborean  Baresarks,  amusing  enough,  but  with  no  more 
reference  to  Germany  than  to  England  ;  while  in  return  the 
Nibelungen  Lied  is  despatched  in  something  less  than  one  line, 
and  comes  no  more  to  light.  Tyll  Eulenspiegel,  who  was  not 
an  c  anonymous  Satire,  entitled  the  Mirror  of  Oivls,'  but  a  real 
flesh-and-blood  hero  of  that  name,  whose  tombstone  is  stand- 
ing to  this  day  near  Liibeck,  has  some  four  lines  for  his  share  ; 
Reineke  de  Fos  about  as  many,  which  also  are  inaccurate. 
Again,  if  Wieland  have  his  half-volume,  and  poor  Ernst 
Schulze,  poor  Zacharias  Werner,  and  numerous  other  poor 
men,  each  his  chapter  ;  Luther  also  has  his  two  sentences,  and 
is  in  these  weighed  against — Dr.  Isaac  Watts.  Ulrich  Hutten 
does  not  occur  here  ;  Hans  Sachs  and  his  Master-singers  es- 
cape notice,  or  even  do  worse  ;  the  poetry  of  the  Reformation 
is  not  alluded  to.  The  name  of  Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Richter 
appears  not  to  be  known  to  Mr.  Taylor  ;  or,  if  want  of  rhyme 
was  to  be  the  test  of  a  Prosaist,  how  comes  Salomon  Gesner 
.aere  ?  Stranger  still,  Ludwig  Tieck  is  not  once  mentioned  ; 
neither  is  Novalis  ;  neither  is  Maler  Mailer.  But  why  dwell 
on  these  omissions  and  commissions  ?  Is  not  all  included  in 
this  one  wellnigh  incredible  fact,  that  one  of  the  largest  articles 
in  the  Book,  a  tenth  part  of  the  whole  Historic  Survey  of  German 
Poetry,  treats  of  that  delectable  genius,  August  von  Kotzebue  ? 

The  truth  is,  this  Historic  Survey  has  not  anything  histor- 
ical in  it ;  but  is  a  mere  aggregate  of  Dissertations,  Trans- 
lations, Notices  and  Notes,  bound  together  indeed  by  the 
circumstance  that  they  are  all  about  German  Poetry,  '  about 
it  and  about  it ; '  also  by  the  sequence  of  time,  and  still  more 
strongly  by  the  Bookbinder's  pack-thread  ;  but  by  no  othei 
sufficient  tie  whatever.  The  authentic  title,  were  not  some 
mercantile  varnish  allowable  in  such  cases,  might  be  :  '  Gen- 
'  eral  Jail-delivery  of  all  Publications  and  Manuscripts,  orig- 
'  inal  or  translated,  composed  or  borrowed,  on  the  subject  of 
*  German  Poetry  ;  by  '  &c. 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  81 


To  such  Jail-delivery,  at  least  when  it  is  from  the  prison 
of  Mr.  Taylor's  Desk  at  Norwich,  and  relates  to  a  subject  in 
the  actual  predicament  of  German  Poetry  among  us,  we  have 
no  fundamental  objection  :  and  for  the  name,  now  that  it  is 
explained,  there  is  nothing  in  a  name  ;  a  rose  by  any  other 
name  would  smell  as  sweet.  However,  even  in  this  lower 
and  lowest  point  of  view,  the  Historic  Survey  is  liable  to  grave 
objections ;  its  worth  is  of  no  unmixed  character.  We  men- 
tioned that  Mr.  Taylor  did  not  often  cite  authorities  :  for 
which  doubtless  he  may  have  his  reasons.  If  it  be  not  from 
French  Prefaces,  and  the  Biographie  Universale,  and  other 
the  like  sources,  we  confess  ourselves  altogether  at  a  loss  to 
divine  whence  airy  reasonable  individual  gathered  such  notices 
as  these.  Books  indeed  are  scarce  ;  but  the  most  untoward 
situation  may  command  "Wachler's  Vorlesungen,  Horn's  Poesie 
und  Beredsamkeit,  Meister's  Characteristiken ,  Koch's  Compen- 
dium, or  some  of  the  thousand-and-one  compilations  of  that 
sort,  numerous  'and  accurate  in  German,  more  than  in  any 
other  literature  :  at  all  events,  Jordens's  Lexicon  Deutscher 
Dichter  und  Prosaisten,  and  the  wToiid-ren owned  Leipzig  Con- 
versations-Lexicon. No  one  of  these  appears  to  have  been  in 
Mr.  Taylor's  possession  ; — Bouterwek  alone,  and  him  he  seems 
to  have  consulted  perfunctorily.  A  certain  proportion  of 
errors  in  such  a  work  is  pardonable  and  unavoidable  :  scarcely 
so  the  proportion  observed  here.  The  Historic  Survey  abounds 
with  errors,  perhaps  beyond  any  book  it  has  ever  been  our 
lot  to  review.  Of  these  indeed  many  are  harmless  enough  : 
$s,  for  instance,  where  we  learn  that  Gorres  was  born  in  1804 
(not  in  1776)  :  though  in  that  case  he  must  have  published 
his  Shah-Nameh  at  the  age  of  three  years  :  or  where  it  is  said 
that  Werner's  epitaph  £  begs  Mary  Magdalene  to  pray  for  his 
soul,'  which  it  does  not  do,  if  indeed  any  one  cared  what  it 
did.  Some  are  of  a  quite  mysterious  nature  ;  either  impreg- 
nated with  a  wit  which  continues  obstinately  latent,  or  indi- 
cating that,  in  spite  of  Railways  and  Newspapers,  some  por- 
tions of  this  Island  are  still  singularly  impermeable.  For 
example:  ( It  (Gotz  von  Berlichingen)  was  admirably  trans- 
lated into  English,  in  1799,  at  Edinburgh,  by  William  Scott, 

a 


82 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


'  Advocate  ;  no  doubt,  the  same  person  who,  under  the  poet- 
'  ical  but  assumed  name  of  Walter,  has  since  become  the  most 
c  extensively  popular  of  the  British  writers.' — Others  again 
are  the  fruit  of  a  more  culpable  ignorance  ;  as  when  we  hear 
that  Goethe's  Dichtung  and  Wahrheit  is  literally  meant  to  be 
a  fictitious  narrative,  and  no  genuine  Biography  ;  that  his 
Stella  ends  quietly  in  Bigamy  (to  Mr.  Taylor's  satisfaction), 
which,  however  the  French  translation  may  run,  in  the  orig- 
inal it  certainly  does  not.  Mr.  Taylor  likewise  complains 
that  his  copy  of  Faust  is  incomplete  :  so,  we  grieve  to  state, 
is  ours.  Still  worse  is  it  when  speaking  of  distinguished  men, 
who  probably  have  been  at  pains  to  veil  their  sentiments  on 
certain  subjects,  our  Author  takes  it  upon  him  to  lift  such 
veil,  and  with  perfect  composure  pronounces  this  to  be  a 
Deist,  that  a  Pantheist,  that  other  an  Atheist,  often  without 
any  due  foundation.  It  is  quite  erroneous,  for  example,  to 
describe  Schiller  by  any  such  unhappy  term  as  that  of  Deist : 
it  is  very  particularly  erroneous  to  say  that  Goethe  anywhere 
c  avows  himself  an  Atheist,'  that  he  cis  a  Pantheist ;' — indeed, 
that  he  is,  was,  or  is  like  to  be  any  ist  to  which  Mr.  Taylor 
would  attach  just  meaning. 

But  on  the  whole,  what  struck  us  most  in  these  errors  is 
their  surprising  number.  In  the  way  of  our  calling,  we  at 
first  took  pencil,  with  intent  to  mark  such  transgressions  ;  but 
soon  found  it  too  appalling  a  task,  and  so  laid  aside  our  black- 
lead  and  our  art  (ccestus  artemque).  Happily,  however,  a 
little  natural  invention,  assisted  by  some  tincture  of  arith- 
metic,, came  to  our  aid.  Six  pages,  studied  for  that  end,  we 
did  mark ;  finding  therein  thirteen  errors  :  the  pages  are 
167-173  of  Volume  Third,  and  still  in  our  copy  have  their 
marginal  stigmas,  which  can  be  vindicated  before  a  jury  of 
Authors.  Now  if  6  give  13,  who  sees  not  that  1455,  the  en- 
tire number  of  pages,  will  give  3152  and  a  fraction?  Or 
allowing  for  Translations,  which  are  freer  from  errors,  and  for 
philosophical  Discussious,  wherein  the  errors  are  of  another 
sort ;  nay,  granting  with  a  perhaps  unwarranted  liberality, 
that  these  six  pages  may  yield  too  high  an  average,  which  we 
know  not  that  they  do, — may  not,  in  round  numbers,  Fifteen 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  83 


Hundred  be  given  as  the  approximate  amount,  not  of  errors, 
indeed,  yet  of  mistakes  and  misstatements,  in  these  three 
octavos  ? 

Of  errors  in  doctrine,  false  critical  judgments  and  all  sorts 
of  philosophical  hallucination,  the  number,  more  difficult  to 
ascertain,  is  also  unfortunately  great.  Considered,  indeed,  as 
in  any  measure  a  picture  of  what  is  remarkable  in  German 
Poetry,  this  Historic  Survey  is  one  great  Error.  We  have 
to  object  to  Mr.  Taylor  on  all  grounds  ;  that  his  views  are 
often  partial  and  inadequate,  sometimes  quite  false  and  im- 
aginary ;  that  the  highest  productions  of  German  Literature, 
those  works  in  which  properly  its  characteristic  and  chief 
worth  lie,  are  still  as  a  sealed  book  to  him  ;  or  what  is  worse, 
an  open  book  that  he  will  not  read;  but  pronounces  to  be 
filled  with  blank  paper.  From  a  man  of  such  intellectual 
vigour,  wdio  has  studied  his  subject  so  long,  we  should  not 
have  expected  such  a  failure. 

Perhaps  the  main  principle  of  it  may  be  stated,  if  not  ac- 
counted for,  in  this  one  circumstance,  that  the  Historic  Sur- 
vey, like  its  Author,  stands  separated  from  Germany  by 
'  more  than  forty  years.'  During  this  time  Germany  has 
been  making  unexampled  progress  ;  while  our  Author  has 
either  advanced  in  the  other  direction,  or  continued  quite 
stationary.  Forty  years,  it  is  true,  make  no  difference  in  a 
classical  Poem  ;  yet  much  in  the  readers  of  that  Poem,  and 
its  position  towards  these.  Forty  years  are  but  a  small  period 
in  some  Histories,  but  in  the  history  of  German  Literature, 
the  most  rapidly  extending,  incessantly  fluctuating  object 
even  in  the  spiritual  world,  they  make  a  great  period.  In 
Germany,  within  these  forty  years,  how  much  has  been 
united,  how  much  has  fallen  asunder  !  Kant  has  superseded 
Wolf  ;  Fichte,  Kant  ;  Schelling,  Fichte  ;  and  now,  it  seems, 
Hegel  is  bent  on  superseding  Schelling.  Baumgarten  has 
given  place  to  Schlegel  ;  the  Deutsche  Bibliothek  to  the  Berlin 
Hermes  :  Lessing  still  towers  in  the  distance  like  an  Earth- 
born  Atlas  ;  but  in  the  poetical  Heaven,  Wieland  and  Klop- 
stock  burn  fainter,  as  new  and  more  radiant  luminaries  have 
arisen.    Within  the  last  forty  years,  German  Literature  has 


84        TAYLOR' 8  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


become  national,  idiomatic,  distinct  from  all  others ;  by  its 
productions  during  that  period,  it  is  either  something  or 
nothing. 

Nevertheless  it  is  still  at  the  distance  of  forty  years,  some- 
times  we  think  it  must  be  fifty,  that  Mr.  Taylor  stands.  '  The 
fine  Literature  of  Germany/  no  doubt  he  has  'imported;' 
yet  only  with  the  eyes  of  1780  does  he  read  it.  Thus  Sul- 
zers  Universal  Theory  continues  still  to  be  his  roadbook  to 
the  temple  of  German  taste  ;  almost  as  if  the  German  critic 
should  undertake  to  measure  Waverley  and  Manfred  by  the 
scale  of  Blair's  Lectures.  Sulzer  was  an  estimable  man,  who 
did  good  service  in  his  day  ;  but  about  forty  years  ago  sank 
into  a  repose,  from  which  it  would  now  be  impossible  to  rouse 
him.  The  superannuation  of  Sulzer  appears  not  once  to  be 
suspected  by  our  Author  ;  as  indeed  little  of  all  the  great 
work  that  has  been  done  or  undone  in  Literary  Germany, 
within  that  period,  has  become  clear  to  him.  The  far-famed 
Xenien  of  Schiller's  Musenalmanach  are  once  mentioned,  in 
some  half-dozen  lines,  wherein  also  there -are  more  than  half- 
a-dozen  inaccuracies,  and  one  rather  egregious  error.  Of  the 
results  that  followed  from  these  Xenien  ;  of  Tieck,  Wacken- 
rocler,  the  two  S^hlegels  and  Novalis,  whose  critical  Union, 
and  its  works,  filled  all  Germany  with  tumult,  discussion,  and 
at  length  with  new  conviction,  no  whisper  transpires  here. 
The  New  School,  with  all  that  it  taught,  untaught  and  mis- 
taught,  is  not  so  much  as  alluded  to.  Schiller  and  Goethe, 
with  all  the  poetic  world  they  created,  remain  invisible,  or 
dimly  seen  :  Kant  is  a  sort  of  Political  Reformer.  It  must 
be  stated  with  all  distinctness,  that  of  the  newer  and  higher 
German  Literature,  no  reader  will  obtain  the  smallest  under- 
standing from  these  Volumes. 

Indeed,  quite  apart  from  his  inacquaintance  with  actual 
Germany,  there  is  that  in  the  structure  or  habit  of  Mr.  Tay- 
lor's mind  which  singularly  unfits  him  for  judging  of  such 
matters  well.  We  must  complain  that  he  reads  German 
Poetry,  from  first  to  last,  with  English  eyes  ;  will  not  accom- 
modate himself  to  the  spirit  of  the  Literature  he  is  investi- 
gating, and  do  his  utmost,  by  loving  endeavour,  to  win  its 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  85 


secret  from  it  ;  but  plunges  in  headlong,  and  silently  assum- 
ing that  all  this  was  written  for  him  and  for  his  objects, 
makes -short  work  with  it,  and  innumerable  false  conclusions. 
It  is  sad  to  see  an  honest  traveller  confidently  gauging  all 
foreign  objects  with  a  measure  that  will  not  mete  them  ;  try- 
ing German  Sacred  Oaks  by  their  fitness  for  British  ship- 
building ;  walking  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  and  finding  so 
little  that  he  did  not  bring  with  him.  This,  we  are  too  well 
aware,  is  the  commonest  of  all  errors,  both  with  vulgar  read- 
ers and  with  vulgar  critics  ;  but  from  Mr.  Taylor  we  had  ex- 
pected something  better  ;  nay  let  us  confess,  he  himself  now 
and  then  seems  to  attempt  something  better,  but  too  imper- 
fectly succeeds  in  it. 

The  truth  is,  Mr.  Taylor,  though  a  man  of  talent,  as  we 
have  often  admitted,  and  as  the  world  well  knows,  though  a 
downright,  independent  and  to  all  appearance  most  praise- 
worthy man,  is  one  of  the  most  peculiar  critics  to  be  found  in 
our  times.  As  we  construe  him  from  these  Volumes,  the 
basis  of  his  nature  seems  to  be  Polemical  ;  his  whole  view  of 
the  world,  of  its  Poetry,  and  whatever  else  it  holds,  has  a  mili- 
tant character.  According  to  this  philosophy,  the  whole  duty 
of  man,  it  would  almost  appear,  is  to  lay  aside  the  opinion  of 
his  grandfather.  Doubtless,  it  is  natural,  it  is  indispensable, 
for  a  man  to  lay  aside  the  opinion  of  his  grandfather,  when 
it  will  no  longer  hold  together  on  him  ;  but  we  had  imagined 
that  the  great  and  infinitely  harder  duty  was  :  To  turn  the 
opinion  that  does  hold  together  to  some  account.  However, 
it  is  not  in  receiving  the  New,  and  creating  good  with  it,  but 
solely  in  pulling  to  pieces  the  Old,  that  Mr.  Taylor  will  have 
us  emplo}^ed.  Often,  in  the  course  of  these  pages,  might  the 
British  reader  sorrowfully  exclaim  :  "  Alas  !  is  this  the  year 
of  grace  1831,  and  are  we  still  here?  Armed  with  the  hatchet 
and  tinder-box  ;  still  no  symptom  of  the  sower's-sheet  and 
plough  ?  "  These  latter,  for  our  Author,  are  implements  of 
the  dark  ages ;  the  ground  is  full  of  thistles  and  jungle  ;  cut 
down  and  spare  not.  A  singular  aversion  to  Priests,  some- 
thing like  a  natural  horror  and  hydrophobia,  gives  him  no 
rest  night  nor  day  ;  the  gist  of  all  his  speculations  is  to  drive 


86        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


down  more  or  less  effectual  palisades  against  that  class  of  per- 
sons ;  nothing  that  he  does  but  they  interfere  with  01 
threaten  :  the  first  question  he  asks  of  every  passer-by,  be  it 
German  Poet,  Philosopher,  Farce-writer,  is  :  "  Arian  or  Trini- 
tarian ?  Wilt  thou  help  me  or  not?"  Long  as  he  has  now 
laboured,  and  though  calling  himself  Philosopher,  Mr.  Taylor 
has  not  yet  succeeded  in  sweeping  his  arena  clear  ;  but  still 
painfully  struggles  in  the  questions  of  Naturalism  and  Super- 
naturalism,  Liberalism  and  Servilism. 

Agitated  by  this  zeal,  with  its  fitful  hope  and  fear,  it  is  that 
he  goes  through  Germany  ;  scenting  out  Infidelity  with  the 
nose  of  an  ancient  Heresy-hunter,  though  for  opposite  pur- 
poses ;  and,  like  a  recruiting-sergeant,  beating  aloud  for 
recruits ;  nay,  where  in  any  corner  he  can  spy  a  tall  man, 
clutching  at  him,  to  crimp  him  or  impress  him.  Goethe's  and 
Schiller's  creed  we  saw  specified  above  ;  those  of  Lessing  and 
Herder  are  scarcely  less  edifying  ;  but  take  rather  this  saga- 
cious exposition  of  Kant's  Philosophy  : 

'  The  Alexandrian  writings  do  not  differ  so  widely  as  is  com- 
monly apprehended  from  those  of  the  Konigsberg  School  ; 
for  they  abound  with  passages,  which,  while  they  seem  to  flat- 
ter the  popular  credulity,  resolve  into  allegory  the  stories  of 
the  gods,  and  into  an  illustrative  personification  the  soul  of 
the  world  ;  thus  insinuating,  to  the  more  alert  and  penetrat- 
ing, the  speculative  rejection  of  opinions  with  which  they  are 
encouraged  and  commanded  in  action  to  comply.  "With  an- 
alogous spirit,  Professor  Kant  studiously  introduces  a  distinc- 
tion between  Practical  and  Theoretical  Eeason  ;  and  while  he 
teaches  that  rational  conduct  will  indulge  the  hypothesis  of  a 
God,  a  revelation,  and  a  future  state  (this,  we  presume,  is 
meant  by  calling  them  inferences  of  Practical  Reason),  he  pre- 
tends that  Theoretical  Eeason  can  adduce  no  one  satisfactory 
argument  in  their  behalf :  so  that  his  morality  amounts  to  a 
defence  of  the  old  adage,  "  Think  with  the  wise,  and  act  with 
the  vulgar ; "  a  plan  of  behaviour  which  secures  to  the  vulgar 
an  ultimate  victory  over  the  wise.  *  *  *  Philosophy  is  to 
be  withdrawn  within  a  narrower  circle  of  the  initiated  ;  and 
these  must  be  induced  to  conspire  in  favoring  a  vulgar  super- 
stition. This  can  best  be  accomplished  by  enveloping  with 
enigmatic  jargon  the  topics  of  discussion  ;  by  employing  a 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  $7 


cloudy  phraseology,  which  may  intercept  from  below  the  war- 
whoop  of  impiety,  and  from  above  the  evulgation  of  infidelity  ; 
by  contriving  a  kind  of  "  cipher  of  illuminism,"  in  which  public 
discussions  of  the  most  critical  nature  can  be  carried  on  from 
the  press,  without  alarming  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  or 
exciting  the  precautions  of  the  magistrate.  Such  a  cipher,  in 
the  hands  of  an  adept,  is  the  dialect  of  Kant.  Add  to  this,  the 
notorious  Gallicanism  of  his  opinions,  which  must  endear  him 
to  the  patriotism  of  the  philosophers  of  the  Lyceum  ;  and  it 
will  appear  probable  that  the  reception  of  his  forms  of  syllo- 
gising should  extend  from  Germany  to  France ;  should  com- 
pletely and  exclusively  establish  itself  on  the  Continent ;  en- 
tomb with  the  Reasonings  the  Reason  of  the  modern  world  ; 
and  form  the  tasteless  fretwork  which  seems  about  to  convert 
the  halls  of  liberal  Philosophy  into  churches  of  mystical  Super- 
naturalism. ' 

These  are  indeed  fearful  symptoms,  and  enough  to  quicken 
the  diligence  of  any  recruiting  officer  that  has  the  good  cause 
at  heart.  Reasonably  may  such  officer,  beleaguered  with 
'witchcraft  and  demonology,  trinitarianism,  intolerance/  and 
a  considerable  list  of  et-ceteras,  and  still  seeing  no  hearty  fol- 
lowers of  his  flag,  but  a  mere  Falstaff  regiment,  smite  upon 
his  thigh,  and,  in  moments  of  despondency,  lament  that 
Christianity  had  ever  entered,  or  as  we  here  have  it,  'in- 
truded' into  Europe  at  all;  that,  at  least,  some  small  slip  of 
heathendom,  'Scandinavia,  for  instance/ had  not  been  'left 
1  to  its  natural  course,  unmisguided  by  ecclesiastical  mission- 
i  aries  and  monastic  institutions.  Many  superstitions,  which 
'  have  fatigued  the  credulity,  clouded  the  intellect  and  im- 
'  paired  the  security  of  man,  and  which,  alas  !  but  too  natu- 
'  rally  followed  in  the  train  of  the  Sacred  Books,  would  there, 
'  perhaps,  never  have  struck  root ;  and  in  one  corner  of  the 
'  world,  the  inquiries  of  reason  might  have  found  an  earlier 
'  asylum,  and  asserted  a  less  circumscribed  range.'  Never- 
theless, there  is  still  hope,  preponderating  hope.  '  The  general 
tendency  of  the  German  school/  it  would  appear,  could  we 
but  believe  such  tidings,  '  is  to  teach  French  opinions  in  Eng- 
lish forms.'  Philosophy  can  now  look  down  with  some  ap- 
proving glances  on  Socinianism.    Nay,  the  literature  of  Ger- 


88         TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


many,  'very  liberal  and  tolerant/  is  gradually  overflow  $ 
even  into  the  Slavonian  nations,  i  and  will  found,  in  new  lan- 
(  guages  and  climates,  those  latest  inferences  of  a  corrupt  but 
£  instructed  refinement,  which  are  likely  to  rebuild  the  moral- 
'  ity  of  the  Ancients  on  the  ruins  of  Christian  Puritanism.' 

Such  retrospections  and  prospections  bring  to  mind  an 
absurd  rumour  which,  confounding  our  Author  with  his 
namesake,  the  celebrated  Translator  of  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
represented  him  as  being  engaged  in  the  repair  and  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  Pagan  Religion.  For  such  rumour,  we  are 
happy  to  state,  there  is  not,  and  was  not  the  slightest  founda- 
tion. Wieland  may,  indeed,  at  one  time,  have  put  some 
whims  into  his  disciple's  head ;  but  Mr.  Taylor  is  too  solid  a 
man  to  embark  in  speculations  of  that  nature.  Prophetic 
daydreams  are  not  practical  projects  ;  at  all  events,  as  we 
here  see,  it  is  not  the  old  Pagan  gods  that  we  are  to  bring 
back,  but  only  the  ancient  Pagan  morality,  a  refined  and  re- 
formed Paganism  ; — as  some  middle-aged  householder,  if 
distressed  by  tax-gatherers  and  duns,  might  resolve  on  be- 
coming thirteen  again,  and  a  bird-nesting  schoolboy.  Let  no 
timid  layman  apprehend  any  overflow  of  priests  from  Mr. 
Taylor,  or  even  of  gods.  Is  not  this  commentary  on  the 
hitherto  so  inexplicable  conversion  of  Friedrich  Leopold 
Count  Stolberg  enough  to  quiet  every  alarmist  ? 

'  On  the  Continent  of  Europe,  the  gentleman,  and  Frederic 
Leopold  was  emphatically  so,  is  seldom  brought  up  with  much 
solicitude  for  any  positive  doctrine  :  among  the  Catholics,  the 
moralist  insists  on  the  duty  of  conforming  to  the  religion  of 
one's  ancestors  ;  among  the  Protestants,  on  the  duty  of  con- 
forming to  the  religion  of  the  magistrate  :  but  Frederic 
Leopold  seems  to  have  invented  a  new  point  of  honour,  and  a 
most  rational  one, — the  duty  of  conforming  to  the  religion  of 
one's  father-in-law. 

'  A  young  man  is  the  happier,  while  single,  for  being  un- 
encumbered with  any  religious  restraints  ;  but  when  the  time 
comes  for  submitting  to  matrimony,  he  will  find  the  precedent 
of  Frederic  Leopold  well  entitled  to  consideration.  A  pre- 
disposition to  conform  to  the  religion  of  the  father-in-law 
facilitates  advantageous  matrimonial  connexions  ;  it  produces 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  89 


in  n  family  the  desirable  harmony  of  religious  profession  ;  it 
secures  the  sincere  education  of  the  daughters  in  the  faith  of 
their  mother  ;  and  it  leaves  the  young  men  at  liberty  to  apos- 
tatise In  their  turn,  to  exert  their  light  of  private  judgment, 
and  to  choose  a  worship  for  themselves.  Keligion,  if  a  blem- 
ish in  the  male,  is  surely  a  grace  in  the  female  sex :  courage 
of  mind  may  tend  to  acknowledge  nothing  above  itself  ;  but 
timidity  is  ever  disposed  to  look  upwards  for  protection,  for 
consolation  and  for  happiness/ 

With  regard  to  this  latter  point,  whether  Religion  is  'a 
blemish  in  the  male,  and  surely  a  grace  in  the  female  sex,'  it 
is  possible  judgments  may  remain  suspended  :  Courage  of 
mind,  indeed,  will  prompt  the  squirrel  to  set  itself  in  posture 
against  an  armed  horseman  ;  yet  whether  for  men  and  women, 
who  seem  to  stand,  not  only  under  the  Galaxy  and  Stellar 
system,  and  under  Immensity  and  Eternity,  but  even  under 
any  bare  bodkin  or  drop  of  prussic  acid,  'such  courage  of 
mind  as  may  tend  to  acknowledge  nothing  above  itself,'  were 
ornamental  or  the  contrary  ;  whether,  lastly,  religion  "is 
grounded  on  Fear,  or  on  something  infinitely  higher  and  in- 
consistent with  Fear, — may  be  questions.  But  they  are  of  a 
kind  we  are  not  at  present  called  to  meddle  with. 

Mr.  Taylor  promulgates  many  other  strange  articles  of  faith, 
for  he  is  a  positive  man,  and  has  a  certain  quiet  wilfulness ; 
these,  however,  cannot  henceforth  much  surprise  us.  He 
still  calls  the  Middle  Ages,  during  which  nearly  all  the  in- 
ventions and  social  institutions,  whereby  we  yet  live  as  civil- 
ised men,  were  originated  or  perfected,  '  a  Millennium  of 
Darkness  ; '  on  the  faith  chiefly  of  certain  long  past  Pedants, 
who  reckoned  everything  barren,  because  Chrysoloras  had 
not  yet  come,  and  no  Greek  Roots  grew  there.  Again,  turning 
in  the  other  direction,  he  criticises  Luther's  Reformation, 
and  repeats  that  old  and  indeed  quite  foolish  story  of  the 
Augustine  Monks  having  a  merely  commercial  grudge  against 
the  Dominican  ;  computes  the  quantity  of  blood  shed  for 
Protestantism  ;  and,  forgetting  that  men  shed  blood  in  all 
ages,  for  any  cause,  and  for  no  cause,  for  Sansculottism, 
for  Bonapartism,  thinks  that,  on  the  whole,  the  Reformation 


90        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


was  an  error  and  failure.  Pity  that  Providence  (as  King 
Alplionso  wished  in  the  Astronomical  case)  had  not  created 
its  man  three  centuries  sooner,  and  taken  a  little  counsel 
from  him  !  On  the  other  hand,  *'  Voltaire's  Keformation  5  was 
successful  ;  and  here,  for  once,  Providence  was  right.  Will 
Mr.  Taylor  mention  what  it  was  that  Voltaire  reformed? 
Many  things  he  6?e-formed,  deservedly  and  undeservedly  ;  but 
the  thing  that  he  formed  or  re-formed  is  still  unknown  to  the 
world. 

It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  add,  that  Mr.  Taylor's  whole 
Philosophy  is  sensual  ;  that  is,  he  recognises  nothing  that 
cannot  be  weighed,  measured,  and,  with  one  or  the  other 
organ,  eaten  and  digested.  Logic  is  his  only  lamp  of  life  ; 
where  this  fails,  the  region  of  Creation  terminates.  For  him 
there  is  no  Invisible,  Incomprehensible ;  whosoever,  under 
any  name,  believes  in  an  Invisible,  he  treats,  with  leniency 
and  the  loftiest  tolerance,  as  a  mystic  and  lunatic  ;  and  if  the 
unhappy  crackbrain  has  any  handicraft,  literary  or  other, 
allows  him  to  go  at  large,  and  work  at  it.  Withal  he  is  a 
great-hearted,  strong-minded,  and,  in  many  points,  interesting 
man.  There  is  a  majestic  composure  in  the  attitude  he  has 
assumed  ;  massive,  immovable,  uncomplaining,  he  sits  in  a 
world  of  Delirium  ;  and  for  his  Future  looks  with  sure  faith, 
— only  in  the  direction  of  the  Past.  We  take  him  to  be  a 
man  of  sociable  turn,  not  without  kindness  ;  at  all  events  of 
the  most  perfect  courtesy.  He  despises  the  entire  Universe, 
yet  speaks  respectfully  of  Translators  from  the  German,  and 
always  says  that  they  '  english  beautifully. '  A  certain  mild 
Dogmatism  sits  well  on  him  ;  peaceable,  incontrovertible, 
uttering  the  palpably  absurd  as  if  it  were  a  mere  truism. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  touches  of  a  grave,  scientific 
obscenity,  which  are  questionable.  This  word  Obscenity  we 
use  with  reference  to  our  readers,  and  might  also  add  Pro- 
fanity, but  not  with  reference  to  Mr.  Taylor  ;  he,  as  we  said, 
is  scientific  merely  ;  and  where  there  is  no  coenum  and  no 
fanum,  there  can  be  no  obscenity  and  no  profanity. 

To  a  German  we  might  have  compressed  all  this  long  de- 
scription into  a  single  word  :  Mr.  Taylor  is  simply  what  they 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  91 


call  a  Philister  ;  every  fibre  of  him  is  Philistine.  With  us  such 
men  usually  take  into  Politics,  and  become  Code-makers  and 
Utilitarians  :  it  was  only  in  Germany  that  they  ever  meddled 
much  with  Literature  ;  and  there  worthy  Nicolai  has  long 
since  terminated  his  Jesuit-hunt ;  no  Adelung  now  writes 
books,  Ueber  die  Ncdzlichkeit  d&r  Empfindung  (On  the  Utility 
of  feeling).  Singular  enough,  now,  when  that  old  species  had 
been  quite  extinct  for  almost  half  a  century  in  their  own  land, 
appears  a  natural-born  English  Philistine,  made  in  all  points 
as  they  were.  With  wondering  welcome  we  hail  the  Strong- 
boned  ;  almost  as  we  might  a  resuscitated  Mammoth.  Let 
no  David  choose  smooth  stones  from  the  brook  to  sling  at 
him  :  is  he  not  our  own  Goliath,  whose  limbs  were  made  in 
England,  whose  thews  and  sinews  any  soil  might  be  proud  of  ? 
Is  he  not,  as  we  said,  a  man  that  can  stand  on  his  own  legs 
without  collapsing  when  left  by  himself  ?  In  these  days,  one 
of  the  greatest  rarities,  almost  prodigies. 

We  cheerfully  acquitted  Mr.  Taylor  of  Religion  ;  but  must 
expect  less  gratitude  when  we  farther  deny  him  any  feeling 
for  true  Poetry,  as  indeed  the  feelings  for  Religion  and  for 
Poetry  of  this  sort  are  one  and  the  same.  Of  Poetry  Mr. 
Taylor  knows  well  what  will  make  a  grand,  especially  a 
large,  picture  in  the  imagination :  he  has  even  a  creative  gift 
of  this  kind  himself,  as  his  style  will  often  testify  ;  but  much 
more  he  does  not  know.  How  indeed  should  he?  Nicolai, 
too,  '  judged  of  Poetry  as  he  did  of  Brunswick  Mum,  simply 
by  tasting  it.'  Mr.  Taylor  assumes,  as  a  fact  known  to  all 
thinking  creatures,  that  Poetry  is  neither  more  nor  less  than 
'  a  stimulant/  Perhaps  above  five  hundred  times  in  the 
Historic  Survey  we  see  this  doctrine  expressly  acted  on. 
Whether  the  piece  to  be  judged  of  is  a  Poetical  Whole,  and 
has  what  the  critics  have  named  a  genial  life,  and  what  that 
life  is,  he  inquires  not ;  but,  at  best,  whether  it  is  a  Logical 
Whole,  and  for  most  part,  simply,  whether  it  is  stimulant. 
The  praise  is,  that  it  has  fine  situations,  striking  scenes, 
agonizing  scenes,  harrows  his  feelings,  and  the  like.  Schil- 
ler's Bobbers  he  finds  to  be  stimulant  ;  his  Maid  of  Orleans 
i*  not  stimulant,  but '  among  the  weakest  of  his  tragedies. 


92 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


and  composed  apparently  in  ill  health.'  The  author  oi  Ft- 
zarro  is  supremely  stimulant ;  he  of  Torquato  Tasso  is  1  too 
quotidian  to  be  stimulant.'  We  had  understood  that  alcohol 
was  stimulant  in  all  its  shapes  ;  opium  also,  tobacco,  and  in- 
deed the  whole  class  of  narcotics  ;  but  heretofore  found  Poetry 
in  none  of  the  Pharmacopoeias.  Nevertheless,  it  is  edifying 
to  observe  with  what  fearless  consistency  Mr.  Taylor,  who  is 
no  half-man,  carries  through  this  theory  of  stimulation.  It 
lies  privily  in  the  heart  of  many  a  reader  and  reviewer ;  nay 
Schiller,  at  one  time,  said  that  '  Moliere's  old  woman  seemed 
'  to  have  become  sole  Editress  of  all  Reviews  : '  but  seldom, 
in  the  history  of  Literature,  has  she  had  the  honesty  to  unveil, 
and  ride  triumphant,  as  in  these  Volumes.  Mr.  Taylor  dis- 
covers that  the  only  Poet  to  be  classed  with  Homer  is  Tasso  ; 
that  Shakspeare's  Tragedies  are  cousins-germ  an  to  those  of 
Otway  ;  that  poor  moaning,  monotonous  Macpherson  is  an  epic 
poet.  Lastly,  he  runs  a  laboured  parallel  between  Schiller, 
Goethe  and  Kotzebue  ;  one  is  more  this,  the  other  more  that ; 
one  strives  hither,  the  other  thither,  through  the  wThole  string 
of  critical  predicables ;  almost  as  if  we  should  compare  scien- 
tifically Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  the  Prophecies  of  Isaiah  and 
Mat  Lewis's  Tales  of  Terror. 

Such  is  Mr.  Taylor  ;  a  strong-hearted  oak,  but  in  an  un- 
kindly soil,  and  beat  upon  from  infancy  by  Trinitarian  and 
Tory  Southwesters :  such  is  the  result  which  native  vigour, 
wind-storms  and  thirsty  mould  have  made  out  among  them  ; 
grim  boughs  dishevelled  in  multangular  complexity,  and  of 
the  stiffness  of  brass  ;  a  tree  crooked  every  way,  un wedge- 
able  and  gnarled.  What  bandages  or  cordages  of  ours,  or 
of  man's,  could  straighten  it,  now  that  it  has  grown  there  for 
half  a  century  ?  We  simply  point  out  that  there  is  excellent 
tough  knee-timber  in  it,  and  of  straight  timber  little  or  none. 

In  fact,  taking  Mr.  Taylor  as  he  is  and  must  be,  and  keep- 
ing a  perpetual  account  and  protest  with  him  on  these  pecul- 
iarities of  his,  we  find  that  on  various  parts  of  his  subject  he 
has  profitable  things  to  say.  The  Gottingen  group  of  Poets, 
1  Burger  and  his  set,'  such  as  they  were,  are  pleasantly  delin- 
eated.   The  like  may  be  said  of  the  somewhat  earlier  Swiss 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


brotherhood,  whereof  Bodmer  and  Breitinger  are  the  central 
figures  ;  though  worthy  wonderful  Lavater,  the  wandering 
Physiognomist  and  Evangelist,  and  Protestant  Pope,  should 
not  have  been  first  forgotten,  and  then  crammed  into  an  in- 
significant paragraph.  Lessing,  again,  is  but  poorly  man- 
aged ;  his  main  performance,  as" was  natural,  reckoned  to  be 
the  writing  of  Nathan  the  Wise  :  we  have  no  original  portrait 
here,  but  a  pantagraphical  reduced  copy  of  some  foreign 
sketches  or  scratches  ;  quite  unworthy  of  such  a  man,  in 
such  a  historical  position,  standing  on  the  confines  of  Light 
and  Darkness,  like  Day  on  the  misty  mountain  tops.  Of 
Herder  also  there  is  much  omitted  ;  the  Geschichte  (lev 
Menschheit  scarcely  alluded  to  ;  yet  some  features  are  given 
accurately  and  even  beautifully.  A  slow-rolling  grandilo- 
quence is  in  Mr.  Taylor's  best  passages,  of  which  this  is  one  ; 
if  no  poetic  light,  he  has  occasionally  a  glow  of  true  rhetor- 
ical heat.  Wieland  is  lovingly  painted,  yet  on  the  whole 
faithfully,  as  he  looked  some  fifty  years  ago,  if  not  as  he  now 
looks  :  this  is  the  longest  article  in  the  Historic  Survey,  and 
much  too  long  ;  those  Paganising  Dialogues  in  particular  had 
never  much  worth,  and  at  present  have  scarcely  any. 

Perhaps  the  best  of  all  these  Essays  is  that  on  Klopstock. 
The  sphere  of  Klopstock's  genius  does  not  transcend  Mr. 
Taylor's  scale  of  poetic  altitudes ;  though  it  perhaps  reaches 
the  highest  grade  there  ;  the  £  stimulant '  theory  recedes  into 
the  background ;  indeed  there  is  a  rhetorical  amplitude  and 
brilliancy  in  the  Messias,  which  elicits  in  our  critic  an  in- 
stinct truer  than  his  philosophy  is.  He  has  honestly  studied 
the  Messias,  and  presents  a  clear  outline  of  it ;  neither  has 
the  still  purer  spirit  of  Klopstock's  Odes  escaped  him.  We 
have  English  Biographies  of  Klopstock,  and  a  miserable 
Version  of  his  great  Work ;  but  perhaps  there  is  no  writing 
in  our  language  that  offers  so  correct  an  emblem  of  him  as 
this  analysis.  Of  the  Odes  we  shall  here  present  one,  in  Mr. 
Taylor's  translation,  which,  though  in  prose,  the  reader  will 
not  fail  to  approve  of.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  finest  passage  in 
this  whole  Historic  Survey. 


!)4 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


c  THE  TWO  MUSES. 

1 1  saw — tell  me,  was  I  beholding  what  nowT  happens,  or  wTaa 
I  beholding  futurity? — I  saw  with  the  Muse  of  Britain  the 
Muse  of  Germany  engaged  in  competitory  race, — flying  warm 
to  the  goal  of  coronation. 

'  Two  goals,  where  the  prospect  terminates,  bordered  the 
career  :  Oaks  of  the  forest  shaded  the  one  ;  near  to  the  other 
waved  Palms  in  the  evening  shadow. 

'  Accustomed  to  contest,  stepped  she  from  Albion  proudly 
into  the  arena  ;  as  she  stepped,  when,  with  the  Grecian  Muse 
and  w7ith  her  from  the  Capitol,  she  entered  the  lists. 

'  She  beheld  the  young  trembling  rival,  who  trembled  yet 
with  dignity  ;  glowing  roses  worthy  of  victory  streamed  flam- 
ing over  her  cheek,  and  her  golden  hair  newT  abroad. 

*  Already  she  retained  with  pain  in  her  tumultuous  bosom 
the  contracted  breath  ;  already  she  hung  bending  forward 
towards  the  goal ;  already  the  herald  was  lifting  the  trumpet, 
and  her  eyes  swam  with  intoxicating  joy. 

£  Proud  of  her  courageous  rival,  prouder  of  herself,  the 
lofty  Britoness  measured,  but  with  noble  glance,  thee,  Tuis- 
kone  :  "  Yes,  by  the  bards,  I  grew  up  with  thee  in  the  grove 
of  oaks  : 

£  "  But  a  tale  had  reached  me  that  thou  w7ast  no  more.  Par- 
don, O  Muse,  if  thou  beest  immortal,  pardon  that  I  but  now 
learn  it.    Yonder  at  the  goal  alone  will  I  learn  it. 

'  "  There  it  stands.  But  dost  thou  see  the  still  further 
one,  and  its  crowns  also  ?  This  represt  courage,  this  proud 
silence,  this  look  which  sinks  fiery  upon  the  ground,  I  know  : 

*  "  Yet  weigh  once  again,  ere  the  herald  sound  a  note  dan- 
gerous to  thee.  Am  I  not  she  who  have  measured  myself  with 
her  from  Thermopylae,  and  with  the  stately  one  of  the  Seven 
Hills?" 

'  She  spake  :  the  earnest  decisive  moment  drew  nearer  with 
the  herald.  "I  love  thee,"  answered  quick  with  looks  of  flame 
Teutona,  "  Britoness,  I  love  thee  to  enthusiasm  ; 

c  "  But  not  warmer  than  immortality  and  those  Palms. 
Touch,  if  so  wills  thy  genius,  touch  them  before  me  ;  yet  will 
I,  when  thou  seizest  it,  seize  also  the  crown. 

'  "And,  O  how  I  tremble  !  O  ye  Immortals,  perhaps  I  may 
reach  first  the  high  goal  :  then,  O  then,  may  thy  breath  attain 
iny  loose-streaming  hair  !  " 

'  The  herald  shrilled.  They  flew  writh  eagle-speed.  The 
wide  career  smoked  up  clouds  of  dust.  I  looked.  Beyond 
the  Oak  billowed  yet  thicker  the  dust,  and  I  lost  them.' 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  FOETRY.  95 


1  This  beautiful  allegory/  adds  Mr.  Taylor,  'requires  no 
1  illustration  ;  but  it  constitutes  one  of  the  reasons  for  sus- 
'  pecting  that  the  younger  may  eventually  be  the  victorious 
'  Muse/  We  hope  not ;  but  that  the  generous  race  may  yet 
last  through  long  centuries.  Tuiskone  has  shot  through  a 
mighty  space,  since  this  Poet  saw  her  :  what  if  she  were 
now  slackening  her  speed,  and  the  Britoness  quickening 
hers? 

If  the  Essay  on  Klopstock  is  the  best,  that  on  Kotzebue  is 
undoubtedly  the  worst,  in  this  Book,  or  perhaps  in  any  book 
written  by  a  man  of  ability  in  our  day.  It  is  one  of  those 
acts  which,  in  the  spirit  of  philanthropy,  we  could  wish  Mr. 
Taylor  to  conceal  in  profoundest  secrecy  ;  were  it  not  that 
hereby  the  £  stimulant 1  theory,  a  heresy  which  still  lurks  here 
and  there  even  in  our  better  criticism,  is  in  some  sort  brought 
to  a  crisis,  and  may  the  sooner  depart  from  this  world,  or  at 
least  from  the  high  places  of  it,  into  others  more  suitable. 
Kotzebue,  whom  all  nations  and  kindreds  and  tongues  and 
peoples,  his  own  people  the  foremost,  after  playing  with  him 
for  some  foolish  hour,  have  swept  out  of  doors  as  a  lifeless 
bundle  of  dyed  rags,  is  here  scientifically  examined,  meas- 
ured, pulse-felt,  and  pronounced  to  be  living,  and  a  divinity. 
He  has  such  prolific  'invention  abounds  so  in  'fine  situa- 
tions,' in  passionate  scenes;  is  so  soul-harrowing,  so  stimu- 
lant. The  Proceedings  at  Bow-Street  are  stimulant  enough  ; 
neither  are  prolific  invention,  interesting  situations,  or  soul- 
harrowing  passion  wanting  among  the  authors  (true  creators) 
who  promulgate  their  works  there  ;  least  of  all  if  we  follow 
them  to  Newgate  and  the  gallows  :  but  when  did  the  Morn- 
ing Herald  think  of  inserting  its  Police  Reports  among  our 
Anthologies?  Mr.  Taylor  is  at  the  pains  to  analyse  very 
many  of  Kotzebue's  productions,  and  translates  copiously 
from  two  or  three  :  how  the  Siberian  Governor  took  on  when 
his  daughter  was  about  to  run  away  with  one  Benjowsky,  who 
however  was  enabled  to  surrender  his  prize,  there  on  the 
beach,  with  sails  hoisted,  by  '  looking  at  his  wife's  picture  : ' 
how  the  people  '  lift  young  Burgundy  from  the  Tun,'  not  in- 
deed to  drink  him,  for  he  is  not  wine  but  a  Duke  :  how  a  cer- 


96        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY, 

tain  stout-hearted  West  Indian,  that  has  made  a  fortune,  pro- 
poses marriage  to  his  two  sisters  ;  but  finding  the  ladies 
reluctant,  solicits  their  serving-woman,  whose  reputation  is 
not  only  cracked,  but  visibly  quite  rent  asunder  ;  accepts  her 
nevertheless,  with  her  thriving  cherub,  and  is  the  happiest  of 
men  ; — with  more  of  the  like  sort.  On  the  strength  of  which 
we  are  assured  that,  '  according  to  my  judgment,  Kotzebue  is 
'  the  greatest  dramatic  genius  that  Europe  has  evolved  since 
'  Shakspeare. '  Such  is  the  table  which  Mr.  Taylor  has  spread 
for  pilgrims  in  the  Prose  Wilderness  of  Life  :  thus  does  he  sit 
like  a  kind  host,  ready  to  carve  ;  and  though  the  viands  and 
beverage  are  but,  as  it  were,  stewed  garlic,  Yarmouth  herrings, 
and  blue-ruin,  praises  them  as  'stimulant/  and  courteously 
presses  the  universe  to  fall  to. 

What  a  purveyor  with  this  palate  shall  say  to  Nectar  and 
Ambrosia,  may  be  curious  as  a  question  in  Natural  History, 
but  hardly  otherwise.  The  most  of  what  Mr.  Taylor  has 
written  on  Schiller,  on  Goethe,  and  the  new  Literature  of 
Germany,  a  reader  that  loves  him,  as  we  honestly  do,  will 
consider  as  unwritten,  or  written  in  a  state  of  somnambulism. 
He  who  has  just  quitted  Kotzebue's  Bear-garden  and  Fives- 
court,  and  pronounces  it  to  be  all  stimulant  and  very  good, 
what  is  there  for  him  to'clo  in  the  Hall  of  the  Gods  ?  He  looks 
transiently  in  ;  asks  with  mild  authority,  "  Arian  or  Trinita- 
rian ?  Quotidian  or  Stimulant  ?  "  and  receiving  no  answer  but 
a  hollow  echo,  which  almost  sounds  like  laughter,  passes  on, 
muttering  that  they  are  dumb  idols,  or  mere  Niirnberg  wax- 
work. 

It  remains  to  notice  Mr.  Taylor's  Translations.  Apart  from 
the  choice  of  subjects,  which  in  probably  more  than  half  the 
cases  is  unhappy,  there  is  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of  these. 
Compared  with  the  average  of  British  Translations,  they  may 
be  pronounced  of  almost  ideal  excellence  ;  compared  with  the 
best  Translations  extant,  for  example,  the  German  Shakspeare, 
Homer,  Galderon,  they  may  still  be  called  better  than  indiffer- 
ent. One  great  merit  Mr.  Taylor  has  :  rigorous  adherence  to 
his  original  ;  he  endeavours  at  least  to  copy  with  all  possible 
fidelity  the  turn  of  phrase,  the  tone,  the  very  metre,  whatever 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY,  97 


stands  written  for  him*  With  the  German  language  he  has 
now  had  a  long  familiarity,  and,  what  is  no  less  essential,  and 
perhaps  still  rarer  among  our  Translators,  has  a  decided  un- 
derstanding of  English.  All  this  of  Mr.  Taylor's  own  Trans- 
lations :  in  the  borrowed  pieces,  whereof  there  are  several,  we 
seldom,  except  indeed  in  those  by  Shelley  and  Coleridge,  find 
much  worth  ;  sometimes  a  distinct  worthlessness.  Mr.  Taylor 
has  made  no  conscience  of  clearing  those  unfortunate  perform- 
ances even  from  their  gross  blunders.  Thus,  in  that  '  excel- 
6  lent  version  by  Miss  Plumtre,'  we  find  this  statement :  cPro- 
'  fessor  Miiller  could  not  utter  a  period  without  introducing 
'  the  words  ivith  under,  whether  they  had  business  there  or 
6  not ; '  which  statement,  were  it  only  on  the  ground  that  Pro- 
fessor Miiller  was  not  sent  to  Bedlam,  there  to  utter  periods, 
we  venture  to  deny.  Doubtless  his  besetting  sin  was  mitunfer, 
which  indeed  means  at  the  same  time,  or  the  like  (etymologi- 
cally,  with  among),  but  nowise  with  under.  One  other  instance 
we  shall  give,  from  a  much  more  important  subject.  Mr. 
Taylor  admits  that  he  does  not  make  much  of  Faust :  how- 
ever, he  inserts  Shelley's  version  of  the  Jlayday  Night ;  and 
another  scene,  evidently  rendered  by  quite  a  different  artist. 
In  this  latter,  Margaret  is  in  the  Cathedral  during  High-Mass, 
but  her  wThole  thoughts  are  turned  inwards  on  a  secret  shame 
and  sorrow  :  an  Evil  Spirit  is  whispering  in  her  ear  ;  the  Choir 
chaunt  fragments  of  the  Dies  tree  ;  she  is  like  to  choke  and 
sink.  In  the  original,  this  passage  is  in  verse  ;  and,  we  pre- 
sume, in  the  translation  also, — founding  on  the  capital  letters. 
The  concluding  lines  are  these  : 

'  MARGARET. 

I  feel  imprison'd.    The  tliick  pillars  gird  me. 
The  vaults  low'r  o'er  rne.    Air,  air,  I  faint. 

EVIL  SPIRIT. 

Where  wilt  thou  lie  concealed  ?  for  sin  and  shame 
Remain  not  hidden — woe  is  coming  down. 

THE  CHOIR. 

Quid  stu/i  miser  turn  dicturus? 
Quern  patroninn  roguturus? 
Cam  dx  j  ust  us  ait  seen r us. 

7 


98        TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY. 


EVIL  SPIRIT. 

From  thee  the  glorified  avert  their  mew, 
The  pure  forbear  to  offer  thee  a  hand. 

THE  CHOIR. 

Quid  sum  miser  turn  dicturus  ? 

MARGARET. 

Neighbour,  your   ' 

— Your  what? — Angels  and  ministers  of  grace  defend  us— 
'  Your  Drambottle.'  Will  Mr.  Taylor  have  us  understand, 
then,  that  £  the  noble  German  nation,'  more  especially  the 
fairer  half  thereof  (for  the  £  Neighbour '  is  Nachbarin,  Neigh- 
bours), goes  to  church  with  a  decanter  of  brandy  in  its 
pocket?  Or  would  he  not  rather,  even  forcibly,  interpret 
Fldschchen  by  vinaigrette,  by  volatile-salts  f — The  world  has 
no  notice  that  this  passage  is  a  borrowed  one,  but  will,  not- 
withstanding, as  the  more  charitable  theory,  hope  and  be- 
lieve so. 

We  have  now  done  with  Mr.  Taylor  ;  and  wrould  fain,  after 
all  that  has  come  and  gone,  part  with  him  in  good-nature  and 
good-will.  He  has  spoken  freely ;  we  have  answered  freely. 
Far  as  we  differ  from  him  in  regard  to  German  Literature, 
and  to  the  much  more  important  subjects  here  connected  with 
it ;  deeply  as  we  feel  convinced  that  his  convictions  are  wrong 
and  dangerous,  are  but  half  true,  and,  if  taken  for  the  whole 
truth,  wholly  false  and  fatal,  we  have  nowise  blinded  our- 
selves to  his  vigorous  talent,  to  his  varied  learning,  his  sin- 
cerity, his  manful  independence  and  self-support.  Neither  is 
it  for  speaking  out  plainly  that  wTe  blame  him.  A  man's  hon- 
est, earnest  opinion  is  the  most  precious  of  all  he  possesses  ; 
let  him  communicate  this,  if  he  is  to  communicate  anything. 
There  is,  doubtless,  a  time  to  speak,  and  a  time  to  keep  silence  ; 
yet  Fontenelle's  celebrated  aphorism,  I  might  have  my  hand  full 
of  truth,  and  would  open  only  my  little  finger,  may  be  practised 
also  to  excess,  and  the  little  finger  itself  kept  closed.  That 
reserve,  and  knowing  silence,  long  so  universal  among  us,  is 
less  the  fruit  of  active  benevolence,  of  philosophic  tolerance, 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  99 

than  of  indifference  and  weak  conviction.  Honest  Scepticism, 
honest  Atheism,  is  better  than  that  withered  lifeless  Dilettan- 
teism  and  amateur  Eclecticism,  which  merely  toys  with  all 
opinions  ;  or  than  that  wicked  Machiavelism,  which  in  thought 
denying  everything,  except  that  Power  is  Power,  in  words,  for 
its  own  wise  purposes,  loudly  believes  everything  :  of  both 
which  miserable  habitudes  the  day,  even  in  England,  is  well- 
nigh  over.  That  Mr.  Taylor  belongs  not,  and  at  no  time  be- 
longed, to  either  of  these  classes,  we  account  a  true  praise. 
Of  his  Historic  Survey  we  have  endeavoured  to  point  out  the 
faults  and  the  merits  :  should  he  reach  a  second  edition,  which 
we  hope,  perhaps  he  may  profit  by  some  of  our  hints,  and 
render  the  work  less  unworthy  of  himself  and  of  his  subject. 
In  its  present  state  and  shape,  this  English  Temple  of  Fame 
can  content  no  one.  A  huge,  anomalous,  heterogeneous  mass, 
no  section  of  it  like  another,  oriel-window  alternating  with 
rabbit-hole,  wrought  capital  on  pillar  of  dried  mud  ;  heaped 
together  out  of  marble,  loose  earth,  rude  boulder-stone  ; 
hastily  roofed-in  with  shingles  :  such  is  the  Temple  of  Fame  ; 
uninhabitable  either  for  priest  or  statue,  and.  which  nothing 
but  a  continued  suspension  of  the  laws  of  gravity  can  keep 
from  rushing  erelong  into  a  chaos  of  stone  and  dust.  For 
the  English  worshipper,  who  in  the  mean  while  has  no  other 
temple,  we  search  out  the  least  dangerous  apartments ;  for 
the  future  builder,  the  materials  that  will  be  valuable. 

And  now,  in  washing  our  hands  of  this  all-too  sordid  but 
not  unnecessary  task,  one  word  on  a  more  momentous  object. 
Does  not  the  existence  of  such  a  Book,  do  not  many  other 
indications,  traceable  in  France,  in  Germany,  as  well  as  here, 
betoken  that  a  new  era  in  the  spiritual  intercourse  of  Europe 
is  approaching  ;  that  instead  of  isolated,  mutually  repulsive 
National  Literature,  a  World  Literature  may  one  day  be 
looked  for  ?  The  better  minds  of  all  countries  begin  to  un- 
derstand each  other ;  and,  which  follows  naturally,  to  love 
each  other,  and  help  each  other  ;  by  whom  ultimately,  all 
countries  in  all  their  proceedings  are  governed. 

Late  in  man's  history,  yet  clearly  at  length,  it  becomes 


100       TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY, 

manifest  to  the  dullest,  that  mind  is  stronger  than  matter, 
that  mind  is  the  creator  and  shaper  of  matter  ;  that  not  brute 
Force,  but  only  Persuasion  and  Faith  is  the  king  of  this 
world.  The  true  Poet,  who  is  but  the  inspired  Thinker,  is 
still  an  Orpheus  whose  Lyre  tames  the  savage  beasts,  and 
evokes  the  dead  rocks  to  fashion  themselves  into  palaces  and 
stately  inhabited  cities.  It  has  been  said,  and  may  be  re- 
peated, that  Literature  is  fast  becoming  all  in  all  to  us  ;  our 
Church,  our  Senate,  our  whole  Social  Constitution.  The 
true  Pope  of  Christendom  is  not  that  feeble  old  man  in 
Rome  ;  nor  is  its  Autocrat  the  Napoleon,  the  Nicholas,  with 
his  half  million  even  of  obedient  bayonets  :  such  Autocrat  is 
himself  but  a  more  cunningly-devised  bayonet  and  military 
engine  in  the  hands  of  a  mightier  than  he.  The  true  Autocrat 
and  Pope  is  that  man,  the  real  or  seeming  Wisest  of  the  past 
age  ;  crowned  after  death  ;  who  finds  his  Hierarchy  of  gifted 
Authors,  his  Clergy  of  assiduous  Journalists  ;  whose  Decretals, 
written  not  on  parchment,  but  on  the  living  souls  of  men,  it 
were  an  inversion  of  the  Laws  of  Nature  to  disobey.  In  these 
times  of  ours,  all  Intellect  has  fused  itself  into  Literature: 
Literature,  Printed  Thought,  is  the  molten  sea  and  wonder- 
bearing  chaos,  into  which  mind  after  mind  casts  forth  its 
opinion,  its  feeling,  to  be  molten  into  the  general  mass,  and 
to  work  there  ;  Interest  after  Interest  is  engulfed  in  it,  or  em- 
barked on  it :  higher,  higher  it  rises  round  all  the  Edifices  of 
Existence  ;  they  must  all  be  molten  into  it,  and  anew  bodied 
forth  from  it,  or  stand  unconsumed  among  its  fiery  surges. 
Woe  to  him  whose  Edifice  is  not  built  of  true  Asbest,  and  on 
the  everlasting  Eock  ;  but  on  the  false  sand,  and  of  the  drift- 
wood of  Accident,  and  the  paper  and  parchment  of  antiquated 
Habit !  For  the  power,  or  powers,  exist  not  on  our  Earth, 
that  can  say  to  that  sea,  Roll  back,  or  bid  its  proud  waves  be 
still. 

What  form  so  omnipotent  an  element  will  assume  ;  how 
long  it  will  welter  to  and  fro  as  a  wild  Democracy,  a  wild 
Anarchy  ;  what  Constitution  and  Organisation  it  will  fashion 
for  itself,  and  for  what  depends  on  it,  in  the  depths  of  Time, 
is  a  subject  for  prophetic  conjecture,  wherein  brightest  hope 


TAYLOR'S  SURVEY  OF  GERMAN  POETRY.  101 


is  not  unmingled  with  fearful  apprehension  and  awe  at  the 
boundless  unknown.  The  more  cheering  is  this  one  thing 
which  we  do  see  and  know  :  That  its  tendency  is  to  a  univer- 
sal European  Commonweal ;  that  the  wisest  in  all  nations 
will  communicate  and  cooperate  ;  whereby  Europe  will  again 
have  its  true  Sacred  College,  and  Council  of  Amphictyons  ; 
wars  will  become  rarer,  less  inhuman,  and  in  the  course  of 
centuries  such  delirious  ferocity  in  nations,  as  in  individuals 
it  already  is,  may  be  proscribed,  and  become  obsolete  forever. 


